Trials and Tribulations
by sapper92
Summary: Life in Konoha is confusing life in Kiri is hell, if you thought Iwa was any better then you are dead wrong. Dreaming of Sunshine and Sugar Plums universe fanfic, OC self-insert. (currently being edited)
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: first fic and not sure how it will go or play out but... here we go**

Prologue

If this is God's idea of a joke it's not even remotely funny.

Ok let me back up, I should be dead, but I'm not. I just confused the hell out of you huh? Trust me that wasn't even close to how I felt when I was born into this world. I have to say i was reborn because I still have memories from my past life and the mind of an adult, I know just stay with me. I was a solider in my past life not much different than this one, I didn't die a glorious death, actually it was quite pitiful to put it simply.

Death is a slow process.

I repented for every sin I could think of first, lies, adultry, revenge I took against people. I wasn't a really good person now that I think about it. Soon my body went cold and light turned to darkness and at this point I did not know what to expect. I didn't get clouds and golden gates nor a flaming pit ready to consume my soul like I thought I would. Instead In the darkness, it was warm? I don't really know how to discribe it to you. Then I felt a downwards pressure, now at this point I thought I was heading towards Hell with gasoline drawers on. So imagine my shock when I got hit with freezing air, fuzzy surroundings, and language I couldn't understand.

It was like having someone dump a bucket of ice water on you to get you back to your senses. I was terrified, and can you blame me? I just did what most newborns do, cry like there is no tomorrow. Eventually I calmed myself down and began to try and process what the hell just happened. Unfortunately, there was no way for me to even start to wrap my head around this and at this point I just didn't care.

I had no sense of time, days passed, then months before long my eyesight began to clear up. Now being able to see allowed me to take in visual information my mind was starved for, and being able to see my 'mother' was kinda reassuring I guess. Her name was Yuko she was extremly young looking she couldn't be older than 21 or 22, I never saw my father which lead me believe he was either dead or a deadbeat. Just like in my past life I was raised by my mother with no father figure...goddamnit. I still was happy I at least had one parent who loved me with all their being. My mother would always read to me while I was in her lap when she wasn't busy with house work or cleaning up after me and thats is, how I began to pick up my new language; Japanese. Honestly I was shocked at how fast I was learning the written and spoken language. I just chalked it up to the fact I knew two languages before and my mom just thought I was intelligent. Of course I had to keep myself from seeming too smart, I'd hate to have that prodigy title tagged on to me.

There was something that was still bothering me and I still couldn't understand it. There was this energy I could feel and it wasn't just inside me it was all around me. In the very air I breath it was there and it was just, well weird. I sometimes felt like a small electric current was flowing through me.

 _Man what the hell kinda of world is this._

Eventually I got my answer, one day my mother woke me up out of a nap cooing at me. She was dressed in a red uniform with a brown vest over the top, but its what was fasten to her forehead that damn near gave me a heart attack. The symbol of the hidden stone village.

 _Oh. I'm fucked._

The world of Naruto... you have got to be kidding me.

I began to fuss and my mother shushed me, I then noted another woman in the room she looked about the same age as my mother.

"Now, now Yuudai be still my child, okaa-san has to go don't cry, Oba-san here will take good care of you" she cooed.

I was not upset because she was leaving hell I wasn't upset because she was a shinobi. I was upset because I was born into a ruthless world more barbaric and unforgiving than my last. On top of that I wasn't born in Konoha, even Suna would have been better. No I got Iwa a village that was a complete mystery to me. The only thing I did know is... well they got their ass kicked in the 3rd shinobi world war (thanks to the 4th hokage) and was hated by Suna, Konoha, and Kiri.

My mother kissed me on my forehead and placed me in the arms of my Oba-san and left. It was at this moment I accepted two things.

One: Power and ability, deterimed who lived and who died in this world.

Two: Those with power could control their own destiny.

My Oba-san or Akako-obasan rocked me till I felt myself falling asleep. Right now there was nothing I could do but grow and then I'd worry about survival. Untill then I would just enjoy being a child again. Kami-sama I hope you are watching and enjoying this sick joke you've created for yourself.

 **A/N: So this is the beginning of a what I hope to be a great tale. Please if you have suggestions on how I can improve my writing Please pm me i'm here to learn and get better. Oh this will be taking place in the Dreaming of Sunshine-verse It was that story and Sugar Plums that Inspired this story so Shikako and Ume will be mentioned and make apperances in this story and I'll keep it within their story's timeline as much as I possibly can.**


	2. Chapter 2

As the years passed I became more accepting of my new surroundings, after all I'm stuck here anyways. I got the hang of japanese rather quickly and had simple sentences and proper greetings mastered. I won't lie that japanese has to be the hardest language I've ever encountered. It's quite the adjustment going from 26 letters to thousands of kanji that can mean different things depending on how its written. Man and don't get me started on the spoken language I didn't know there was respectful and disrespectful way to say things.

Learned that lesson when okaa-san smacked me upside the head for not greeting her squad leader properly.

I grew tall for my age standing at 4 feet 9 inches at 5 great I was going to be a giant. I will never get use to my looks jet black stringy hair and black eyes, and sharp facial lines.

It just doesn't feel like it's me looking back at me in the mirror

I began to understand a bit about the kind of family I was born into. In Iwa there are 4 major tribes; the Suki, the Yama, The Tsu, and the Ko. Each tribe had a vassal family or a branch family if you will. I was born to the Tsu's branch family. The Tsu were excellent engineers and stone carvers they were responsible for the original construction of the the village. They had some of the most brilliant minds of any tribe within the village, however the treatment of the their branch family was terrible. High family dues were required monthly, women were set up in arranged marriages to men in the main house, and when they got there was treated like house servants rather than a wife. The men of the branch family had to become shinobi no ifs, ands, or buts about it, The women could become

shinobi however then they couldn't get married.

Made sense you wouldn't mistreat a kunoichi that is just asking get your throat slit.

So knowing this my mother and aunt began Training me at 5 years old for what would be my life til the day I left this existence. Learning about chakra and its applications truly blew me away. I couldn't believe I was actually using something that was made up in my old world. Starting out I had to meditate, I hate meditation for the simple fact I got distracted easily and Akako-obasan would hit me over the head for losing focus. My chakra was really vibrant, and when I asked Akako-obasan why? She explained that people's chakra have different feel and personality.

No one person is the same even twins chakra signatures are slightly different. Made sense.

The control exercises were... difficult, Extremely difficult. It was hard to tame my chakra when I needed a little to say make a piece of paper stick to my hand,I would puncture the paper or shred a piece off.

"Ugh, do it again you're not getting a break till you can do this right" Akako-obasan said with a look of indifference.

she was serious.

"I'm trying oba-san, really it's just my chakra doesn't want to work with me" I responded

"tch, what kind of shinobi would say that, make it work with you otherwise... "

she let it hang and I knew the punishment wouldn't be fun, at all.

I would try for a another hour before I could do at least three fingers without ripping the paper.

"Still you got a long way to go, I wonder what your okaa-san would say if she knew you were not taking your training seriously?" She asked in aloof manner not really expecting an answer."She would be disappointed, I'm sure of that" she pulled a book out her pocket "Look here."Akako-obasan slid the book in my direction. My okaasan picture was in the top left corner.

"This is a hidden cloud bingo book I picked up during my last patrol of the border"

Name: Yuko

Village: Stone

Rank: Special Jonin

Abilities: Skilled Genjutsu user capable of incapacitating and killing with genjutsu. Can use Earth, and Fire release jutsu rank ranges between C and B rank. Tries to avoid close range combat. Intelligent can lure enemies into well thought out traps and quick to turn disadvantages into advantages.

If encountered: Kill on sight.

That was a shock to me, My Okaa-san was that incredible?

She was a kind soul she never really yelled at me, unless I screwed up Big Time. When we trained together she had no problem going over things more than once if I didn't understand fully, or encouraging me when I failed.

"I told her, she can't coddle you otherwise you won't last one second as a shinobi" she took the book back " This isn't a game Yuudai you have to get better and fast otherwise

we gonna end up burying you before the age of 12."

Ouch.

That really struck home especially because, well, I already died before. I hadn't been taking my training seriously... at all. I never worked on my skills by myself since my training started 8 months ago. and to be honest I was going to be entering the academy at the age of 9 I had 4 years, no, 3 and half before then. Iwa's academy was like a military boarding school you didn't learn the basics there slowly it was fast pace, I needed to use this time wisely.

"I understand" I said softly

"I hope so, hate to have to tell my sister her only brat got himself killed because he didn't want to train seriously." she said while pulling out her paper club "now it's meditation time since you still can't control your chakra." she said with a smirk.

oh boy.

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Three years flew by so fast I forgot to blink. My training grew more and more difficult for me,just when I thought I was mastering one skill okaa-san and oba-san would add more and then still expect me to continue working on all the other previous skills and jutsu that we had gone over. I had stone walking ( there are no trees in the land of earth), transformation, replacement, and water walking. We got a bit into kenjutsu but just a dabble nothing to master just be familiar with. The day of my entry into the academy was upon me. As okaa-san and I walked through the village I just admired the sheer engineering marvel that was Iwagakure. It was carved right out of the mountain and used a system of bridges and elevators to help people get from one place to another.

"You ready for the academy, Yuudai?"

I looked at my okaasan smiling at me and returned the gesture.

" Of course, you and Akako-obasan trained me well, although I wish we could have gone over chakra natures that would have me above everyone." I said with some disappointment.

"hahaha, oh yeah? Don't worry the academy will teach you about that." she said still laughing a bit.

I hope so. because I had no idea how to even start that process. Sure the anime showed how Naruto learned to use his nature but that's it, no real details on the others. We soon walked up to a large stone building with the mouth of a cave behind it. 'Shinobi Academy' was engraved above the door. We made our way to the courtyard where other students and parents were waiting. Some were socializing or sharing pleasantries, some children were running around enjoying being kids for the last time.

So sad.

Soon an old man floated into the- WAIT the third Tsuchikage! The hell is he doing here. Everyone snapped to attention all the chatter and banter was instantly sucked up and discarded in some far off place.

"Parents, say your final goodbyes if you would" he said calmly.

My mom pulled me into a tight embrace the kind that you knew you wasn't going to see someone for a while.

" Now, listen to your okaa-san Yuudai stay focus, and work hard, from here on out I can't protect you so find the power within you and get through this trial that is before you... I love you so much my son take care of yourself." She let go and pecked my forehead like she always did.

"Parents, you are dismissed." In a flash all the parents exited the courtyard. We were left alone with the Tsuchikage until some shinobi filed into the courtyard and stood behind him.

"Allow me to introduce myself; I am the Sandaime Tsuchikage; Onoki, you are here to become your village's protectors it strength, its heart, and its soul. I know a lot of you have been training since you were old enough for this day and here you stand, however these are trying times for our village we have no time to waste on training inadequate, weak, easily broken shinobi. Our shinobi are carved out of the very stone they live in, your instructors will push you to your limits and then past them and show you what you are truly capable of. Some of you standing here will not make the cut but that should motivate you all the more to be amongst the few that will receive their headbands. I wish you all the best of luck in your endeavor to become shinobi."

The Tsuchikage took his leave and then the instructors were all over us yelling at us to line up and move faster. We were herded like cattle to a giant room with bins filled with clothes. we were instructed very loudly to grab one shirt and a pair of pants. I quickly grabbed a red shirt and black ankle cut-off shinobi pants. Those That moved to slow got told so loudly and in their face.

It's like I'm in army basic training all over again.

We were told to change quickly and be back outside in 5 minutes, problem there were only 3 dressing rooms. The others began to panic 'how can we all change in time?' 'What will we do?' rang throughout the room. I simply began to undress, 'kyaaa what does he think he's doing?!' ' the heck man?' I ignored them.

They don't get it.

This is the first phase of developing a soldier: Asking for the impossible and making it happen. In real combat you will be asked to do things you will think is impossible, that is a lie your mind tells you despite the answer will be sitting right there. It teaches resiliency a trait every soldier should have otherwise you'll just break in combat. I finished changing and run out to the courtyard. I knew what would happen as soon as I crossed the threshold, the Instructors laid into me.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU WAIT FOR THEM!?"

"THINK YOUR SPECIAL?! HUH?!"

Then the masses made their way out. They got blitzed as well and the mass punishment began, push-ups, sit-ups, squats, laps, suicides, planks... repeat. Pain, sore muscles, fatigue all set in at once. Some kids began to cry.

Big mistake.

The Instructors would descend on them and really lay into them. 'Your mom isn't here to save you now' I thought. After an all day smoke fest the Instructors took us to the open bay we would call home for the next year and half. Double bunks lined the entire bay with a pillow and a sheet, we each took a bunk and waited to be told we could go to sleep. I looked at the faces of the kids, some I saw fear like a feral type of fear and others was just blank and shocked. The funny part was this was just day 0 the beginning.

This was it, hell had welcomed us with open arms.

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 **A/N: Man That took forever to write but here it is i'm going to try and keep a steady update cycle. Oh and I see that I got 2 favorites and a follower so shoutout to NatNicole, xXFallenSakuraXx and Fell Metal I'm glad you liked it and Thank You I'll never forget your names. haha anyways Yuudai will be discovering his nature affinity so stay tuned I think you guys are going to like it.**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 2

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'The suck', it's a military term from my past life. Its when you are training or fighting in some of the worst conditions imaginable. I can honestly say shinobi training is the suck on steroids and HGH hitting the gym five times a day. Our days begin with a 3 mile run up the mountain, and no, there was no pathway you had to use the earth climb technique. I can tell you the human body is not built to run or stand vertically on the side of a mountain, or any vertical surface for that matter.

Gravity rules with an iron fist and doesn't like to be defied.

Chow would follow, you had five minutes to eat a small bowl of rice, a piece of meat and drink a cup of water. The ones who struggled the most with this task was the kids from the tribe's main houses. Of course they would they are dignified after all way above the trash that was the branch house and definitely the gutter rats that were here as well, eating quickly was a sign of the lower class. The instructors could care less and would toss their tray should they still be eating past the allotted time.

'You eat to live not live to eat' as one instructor brilliantly put it.

Taijutsu would be up next, we were learning Iwa's style known as the 'crushing rock' style. If i was a betting man (thank god I didn't get inherit that vice) I'd say that this style was similar to muay thai. The use of eight limbs; hands, legs, knees, and elbows. A truly fearsome and devastating style. Sparring would sometimes get out of hand, I mean the Ko and the Tsu tribes never got along didn't matter if it was the main houses or the branch houses. So having my sparring partner being the future head of the Ko was... problematic.

"Next up, Yuudai and Ryojin" the instructor shouted and I made my way from the bleachers. Ryojin also made his way down, he and I were the two biggest kids in the class both standing at 5'2" and he weighing in at 85 lbs while I was at 80 lbs so it was an even fight. It's who had the better technique, or who pissed who off first that's what would determined the winner. We lined up across from each other.

"Bow" The instructor ordered. I did so but Ryojin refused.

"I would never bow my head to a filthy Tsu, I am the future head of the Ko I'd never disrespect my name sake." Ryojin yelled while pointing at me.

"I'd wouldn't disrespect my tribe like that" I said as stretched my legs "after all everyone knows the Ko are inferior to us Tsu anyways"

"Oh yeah, we shall see about that prepare for defeat."

We got into a fighter's stance.

"Begin."

Ryojin came at me quickly and swung a left hook, I parried it and then dodged the left snap kick he followed with. He was on top of me again throwing some good combos of fist and kicks. I just continued my defense dodging the kicks and parrying the punches. Soon he began to slow, his movements became sloppy.

"What's wrong? Your starting to get sloppy Ryojin,are you tired?" I asked "we only just started."

"Shut your mouth, dammit" he rasped clearly out of breath.

I stepped forward quickly, he put his guard up. I feint a right hook and landed a kick to his midsection. All the air should have left him but he was sturdy and stayed on his feet. He came back at me and threw a straight right which I slipped and smashed my fist into his stomach. He gasped but still was determined and grabbed my arm and tugged me down so my face could meet his knee. I got my right hand in the way and caught his knee as it crashed into my cheek. I wrestled my arm free and retreated, but Ryojin wasn't gonna let me escape and moved back into range. I parried the straight left then ducked under the right hook, blocked the knee that followed and grabbed it. I swept his leg disrupting his balance and pulled my weight towards the knee I had control of making him fall to the ground. I swiftly isolated his ankle and began to twist it toward me.

"Say it, or I snap your ankle" I said flatly. Ryojin looked at me defiantly.

Oh still want to fight? I twisted harder causing him to yelp in pain.

"Your pride is gonna cost you more than an ankle, you'll be dropped from the academy and have to repeat... sure you want that?" I asked and twisted even harder. He screamed now.

"alright" He breathed. I kept the pressure I wanted to here him say it, I wanted him to admit defeat to admit that a Tsu bested him.

"Alright, what?" I said.

"I... Surrender" he said quietly. I wasn't letting him off that easy I wanted the whole class to hear him so I applied more pressure just close to snapping the joint. He started to jerk and cry out.

"I SURRENDER! I SURRENDER! OK!?" I let him go then and stood up. Ryojin grabbed his ankle his teeth showing, jaw locked tight in pain.

"Next time you insult my tribe like that" I got close to his face " I won't be so forgiving." I let all the venom come out in that last sentence and made my way back to the bleachers. I knew I would get in trouble but I didn't care our main house gave us enough shit as it was, and I couldn't do anything about that. So to hear someone from a different tribe insult us... nope, absolutely not, not while I had breath in my lungs.

After taijutsu was shinobi history and village history. More like propaganda class if you ask me. Everything and I mean EVERYTHING built up the village and demonized all the others, especially the hidden leaf. Konoha was evil in the eyes of Iwa and not for the reasons the instructors were giving, it was coming from embarrassment from the defeat they suffered in the last great shinobi war. I mean I'd feel some kind of way too if one shinobi from a rival village killed 1,000 of my men and brought me to surrender. Well I see where the indoctrination starts, right here in the academy.

This kind of brainwashing is truly effective, first they break us down physically then wear us down mentally, break our spirit and want to be an individual and then while we are in this weaken state pump propaganda into us. If that isn't bad enough we were isolated and had no access to any other type of information, so we couldn't cross reference what we were being told to believe. Even if we could no one would speak against the instructors and the students would just shun them or shout them down. Mob mentality at work.

Understanding this gave me an unfair advantage. I understood why It was rare for Iwa to produce a gifted shinobi. In order for one to excel in anything they have to be allowed to do things their way. Some kind of standard is needed but it should just be used as a guideline, it should be flexible and conform to each individual. This is why Konoha can produce ninja like; Kakashi, Minato, Tsunade, Jiraiya and the list goes on. Iwa handicaps itself with the way it teaches and raises us young shinobi. We start behind the eight ball and if we don't realize it, one day it will cost us dearly.

Lunch chow would come and go just as fast as breakfast did and then we were taken to our sleeping bay. We all stood there waiting on our instructors to tell us why we had been brought back to our sleeping bay because usually we didn't see our quarters till no later than nine at night. An instructor entered the bay and we snapped to attention.

"Alright, brats listen up, today you will be separated into your platoons," he said as he pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket."If you're in 1st platoon you'll stand to my left your right and in second vise versa, got it?"

" Yes, sir" we responded.

he began to call off people's names and one by one we were separated, I began to notice something.

Ah, so that's what this is huh?

We were not being separated by merit or current scores, no, we were being separated by class; main house and wealthy kids vs the branch houses and gutter rats. I wondered was this truly how Iwa operated a class system where people with money can buy there way into positions of influence and command within the shinobi ranks. Well, that didn't bother me any I hated the main houses anyways so getting an opportunity to completely crush them was a blessing within a curse I guess you could say.

"Yuudai, second platoon."

"Moving, sir" I moved to my left and stood among the my platoon.

"By the end of the day you are to come up with a platoon name and motto also pick who will be your platoon leaders choose wisely once you have made you decision send your PLs to the instructor's office, dismissed" the instructor left allowing us time to pick a leader. First platoon was rowdy arguing back and forth over who should lead. While my platoon was quiet nobody really had the confidence, and as a leader you needed confidence that was paramount. Also I shouldn't have expected any better all our short lives we were told how inferior we were to our main house, looked down upon by the wealthy, told we were useless or easily replaceable.

OK, let's do this

"Grant me the honor of leading this fine platoon" I said walking into the middle of the group. "Before you object hear me out first, all our lives we have been told how we are inferior to them" I pointed to first platoon " but how are we inferior? I ask you to answer this question, some of us are out doing them in classes, sparring, in throwing practice." some of the kids began to nod, I continued " I'm not perfect and i'm not asking to be the sole leader in this platoon, but I can't stand to lose to the likes of them, and if we work together like a platoon should and put our differences aside I'm sure we can overcome anything put in our way. I'll tell you this and heed my word the same red blood that flows through you flows through them too, the only difference is your birthright something you had no control over. This you have control over you life now you can control if you succeed or fail, you can choose to be conquerors or the conquered, the predators or the prey. The choice is yours my brothers and sisters in arms." I removed myself and waited for them to make their choice.

A few minutes passed and then three of my platoon mates approached me as I sat on my bunk.

"Yo, Yuudai"

I looked up at them one male and two females. Interesting.

"What can i do for you three?" I asked

"Well first introductions, my name is Josai of the Suki tribe branch family."

Ah, I know of him. Josai was a nerd in every sense of the word short hair, large glasses, but he could hold his own in a fight and had the highest marks in our military tactics and strategies class. He had the potential to not be better than Shikamaru but something close.

"Hey, names Fuuma. Of the Yuma branch family."

Interesting, Fuuma was short for her age of 10. she stood out with her blood red hair and piercing red eyes. Maybe she was a descendant of the Uzumaki clan, eh who knew. Her skill as a Kunoichi was top class for her age she had yet to be outdone in sparring when it came to the girls and she's even beaten some of the guys in our class. She also demonstrated some skill for genjutsu due to her extreme chakra control. However she was a bit of a hot head and hard to control, she got into the most trouble out of all the students.

"And my name is, Aoi"

Aoi, was a mystery to me. Long dark blue almost black hair covering one eye. The other pitch black like mines, she was a jack of all trades solid in everything but not great in any one one area. That isn't a bad thing it makes you a great teacher because you have a grasp for everything so if someone is struggling with it you can jump in and tell them what it is they are doing wrong.

"No tribe for you, Aoi?" I asked genuinely curious.

"No, I guess I'm not as fortunate as you three."

"Tch, fortunate she said, don't make me laugh" Fuuma said folding her arms and looking at Aoi with one eye.

"Now ladies, let's be civil" Josai cleared his throat " Yuudai we have come to you to inform you that the platoon would like you to lead them, your speech was very moving."

"Yeah, so moving it had Aoi over here in tears."

"You promised you wouldn't tell him! Fuuma you bully!" Aoi shouted while shaking Fuuma.

"Heh, thanks I guess" I said as I scratched the back of my head, " I just wanted you guys to make a choice it didn't have to be me,I was just putting my hat in the ring."

"Well, the platoon choose you so you better lead us to a victory" Fuuma said and poked my chest.

I nodded, " I will lead you all but I need you guys to agree to be my squad leaders."

"Squad leaders?" Fuuma backed off me "What's that?"

"Really, Fuu-chan" Aoi sighed and rested her face in her hand " A squad leader is right under the platoon leader. they are in charge of the soldiers and execute the missions given to them, and they take care of the individual soldier's needs."

"Oh, right, I knew that" Fuuma looked away from us.

"If those are your terms Yuudai we three would be honored to take the squad leader position, but I have to ask why us?"

Of course Josai would ask.

" I mean you three approached me which tells me two things: one, the platoon has some faith in you three to send you to be their voice. Two, you guys are leaders yourself you wouldn't be here otherwise" I concluded. Well i kinda pulled that explanation out my ass but I couldn't have been too far off the mark... right?

"Hmmm, I can see your logic behind your explanation, I thought you would have used or skill sets for your choice I see I was mistaken."

Ugh, for as smart as I am I can be a real dumbass I totally forgot to mention their abilities as a reason... Damn. Oh well,no point in crying over spilled milk.

"Well that did play a factor as well" I tried to recover.

"Well then, shall we get to the platoon and inform the of the news" he asked gesturing towards the other kids.

"Yeah, let's do it" I said as I hopped off my bed.

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The nature affinity test was last on our list of things for us to do. Figuring out your affinity was a big deal for us young shinobi. Your whole fighting style could change based of your nature affinity. I wasn't expecting much from myself and was just waiting on the beachers to hear my name get called. Aoi had lighting affinity, Fuuma was a dual affinity type with fire and earth, and Josai was as basic as can be with just earth. He didn't seem too upset about it when I asked him. He simply shrugged and said ' no point in wanting for what you were not blessed with.'

So straightforward.

"Yuudai!" I stood up and began my walk towards the desk of Instructors.

"Good luck Yuudai hopefully you get a good nature to work with" Aoi said to my back. I turned and smiled.

" Yeah we will see" I responded

"HEY YOU, HURRY THE HELL UP WE DON'T HAVE ALL DAY!"

I straightened and took off towards the desk.

"Bout time, now take the paper in-between your index and middle fingers and push your chakra into the paper."

I did so and the paper wrinkled. lighting huh.

"alright, keep pushing chakra into that piece and grab another and do the same."

I did so and the second piece crumbled. And earth too.

"Ok he's, a candidate the first one we got in this class, alright kid get outta my face."

I did just that. Candidate for what? The hell was she talking about. I returned to the bleachers and sat next to Fuuma.

"So what's the verdict?" She asked

"Earth and lighting dual affinity." I answered

"Oh, so you're a candidate, huh?"

" For what, the instructor said the same thing too." Fuuma looked at me like I had just grew another head " Foreal, I don't know what you all are talking about."

She sighed and then looked back at me, " sometimes I wonder if you act stupid or if you actually are stupid, I haven't decided yet" she said flatly.

" hahah very funny" I said with faux amusement.

"No seriously, you haven't heard of the explosion corps?"

Oh. Oh yeah.

How could I forget about the one kekkei genkai that Iwa possessed exclusively.

The explosion release.

"Vaguely, I don't know much about it."

" Really, no one knows much about the corps itself but they have produced some of the strongest ninja in our village, plus you have to train with the Tsuchikage in order to receive authorization to use your kekkei genkai."

What kind of twisted non-sense was that? Man you probably couldn't take a piss without the Tsuchikage knowing. Then again learning from a kage, that right there would be an awesome experience. As far as I know anyone that I've seen in the story learn from a kage or someone on that level became almost unstoppable. Almost.

Well I still had to graduate before I could think about the future.

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A/N: This chapter took a while army training is bitch,but I finish it I'm happy for the new followers and being added to community. I hope you all enjoy and I'll be updating constantly even if the following isn't big I don't care about that. Feel free to comment, review and ect. I'm already working on the next chapter so the next upload will be soon till then see you next time.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 3

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Being a leader is one the most rewarding and absolutely stressful tasks one can ever undertake. The simple fact is you have to keep everyone focus on the the same goal, motivate people to be better than they was yesterday, push people past their own perceived notion of their limits. I guess Henry Kissinger said it best 'The task of a leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have never been'. Second platoon or "The misfits" as we so lovingly called ourselves had never been to where I was leading them, to victory. It's like a team who never had a winning season in its history and then here you come saying 'I'm going to lead us to championship', there is going to be some who scoff, others just will look at you crazy. Fuuma, Josai, and Aoi were doing an excellent as my squad leaders, making sure each one of their subordinates were up to speed and effective in the mission I laid out for each squad. Fuuma's squad was my front line made up of the best close and mid range fighters we had. Josai's squad was my long range, trap setting , and recon squad of course this was decided because Josai was very effective in delegation of tasks to his squad. Aoi's squad was my quick response force, her squad was the most versatile because like her they had to know and be good at everyone's job in the platoon to reinforce them should we take losses.

Our training started to become more specific due to the nature affinity test. We started ninjutsu classes that covered all basic ninjutsu and nature ninjutsu and their application in combat. This class was taught by four jonin level ninja two for wind and water which was rare for our village, one who was a fire and earth type so they could teach the lava release should some of the students have the kekkei genkai, and one who was a earth and lightning type and from the explosion corps. Dual affinity was weak in our class only 5 not including Fuuma and myself had a dual affinity and I'm sure even less would come out with the kekkei genkai. Some of the kids who had great chakra control were put into the genjutsu course as well, Fuuma also got put into this course as well as Aoi.

I was enjoying the new classes seeing as I had a talent for nature ninjutsu, being the fastest in my class to get the hang of both earth and lightning nature's. The elemental side of chakra is fascinating, for example to use lighting ninjutsu you had to make your chakra vibrate at a really high rate while performing the hand signs. The feeling of doing so was like... sitting in a massage chair on the highest setting.

The Instructors also began to ease up a bit on us. Respect and discipline was still beaten into us daily, however, getting a bit more time to eat and some free time was a nice change of pace. I personally just used the free time to better my chakra control seeing as it was one of my many glaring weaknesses... still. Aoi was happy to help me with my training in exchange I'd assist her with lightning ninjutsu. So here I found myself balancing (or trying to balance) on the tip of a earth spire I made with just using my big toe and using a steady flow of chakra to protect it from getting skewered.

"That's it, You're starting to get the hang of it Yuudai-kun." Aoi said while clapping her hands, balancing perfectly on the other spike I erected across from me.

"Heh, you don't have to flatter my failure..." I almost lost my balance but quickly regained it so as to not crack my skull against the stone ground. " I know I'm doing terrible right now."

" No your not there are some who wouldn't even last as long as you have."

"Where did you even get this training idea from? You said your not from one of the tribes, right?" I asked. This type of chakra control training seems like something my obaasan would cook up.

"I came up with it myself, actually, why?" she asked. "Is it unbelievable for someone with my background?"

"Well, no... I mean why work this hard to become a shinobi? Surely you didn't have to do this unlike me or Fuuma or Josai. This path wasn't your fate you willingly choose it... why?"

Aoi lowered her head.

"Unfortunately you're wrong, Yuudai-kun, this life was chosen for me before I could even have an option to choose to be anything else."

"How? You know Fuuma would hit you if she heard you just now."

"It's true, I understand the branch families of the four tribes have suffered greatly, more than I can imagine, however, that does not mean that there are some of us here that have not suffered greatly in our own way."She had me there, still Fuuma would disagree, after all she lost her sister and father to this twisted system. "I must wipe out an entire group of people for the pain they have caused me."

Oh no.

That shocked me, Aoi was kind, calm, didn't want to cause issues, hell she wouldn't even defend herself against verbal attacks and Fuuma would have to threaten whoever it was bothering her.

Revenge that is what she is after? I couldn't believe it, I also couldn't blame her I knew what that emotion was capable of, if one was to let it consume them. I had feeling that Aoi wouldn't turn into Sasuke, that situation wasn't handled properly to begin with anyways, however...

"I see, I apologize for my assumptions of your motives." I said solemnly. She flashed a pained smile at me.

"It's alright, I mean there isn't much I can do now, but one day I hope to have the power to heal this pain of mines."

'Power can do a lot of things, but it cannot heal pain only cause it, time is the only remedy for pain.' is what I wanted to tell her but I kept my mouth shut, I have no right to preach to anyone.

"Yuudai-kun, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure, anything."

"Would you still become a shinobi even if you didn't have to?"

That was a good question. Would I?

If I was say born in Konoha to a civilian family no obligation to become a shinobi to risk my life for the safety of the village and the land, would I still want this and if so why? I hadn't given it much thought and when you are being told what to do and how to think you don't give it thought. This is the paradox of social norms, I was told from birth that I was going to become a shinobi and just accepted it because that was what I was supposed to do, and it's what was expected of me. So as of now I couldn't answer Aoi's question honestly because, one I never gave it thought and two I'm still being influenced by social norms and have not yet began to think outside said norms.

"As of right now, I do not have a honest answer for you." I said hopping off the tip of the spire. Aoi got down as well.

"I see, that is unfortunate"

"I'll get back to you on that so don't allow me to forget" I said " now we got forty-five minutes before lights-out let's work on your ninjutsu, shall we?

Aoi nodded her head and we began.

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The next day we headed outside the village for a platoon force on force exercise. First platoon would be on defense, on a mission to protect valuable intel on us that needed to be delivered at all cost. Our job was simple; either kill the whole platoon or intercept the intel and bring it back to our base of operations. So with that in mind we began our planning phase and there was a lot of disagreement amongst my squad leaders... well between Fuuma and Josai that is.

"Why should we play it safe, Josai?!" Fuuma yelled "Let's just hit them hard, make 'em panic and then figure out who has the intel depending on who makes a break for it"

"How absolutely barbaric, that is the most idiotic idea I've heard out of you yet." Josai said crossing his arms and turning his head.

"The hell you say you four-eyed bastard!?" Fuuma spat walking up to Josai. I quickly grabbed her to keep her from throwing the punch I knew would follow. "Let me go Yuudai!" she yelled as she fought against my grip.

"Chill out first, then I may consider it" I said. These fights between Josai and Fuuma were common, they were like oil and water when it came to their personalities. They worked well in combat but jeez they fought like cats and dogs off the battlefield. I sighed "Look, we still have yet to come up with a plan and we have wasted 20 minutes listening to you two argue and throw insults at each other."

Now with only half the time left to plan I needed to rack my brain and come up with a good strategy. With the way I have my squads set up it would be smart to at least let Fuuma's squad hit them first, make them break formation. Then have Josai's squad hang back until that break occurs, of course I would have to account for decoys. Aoi's squad would come in for that to back-up the search for the intel and allow me to expand the net cast to catch the the person with said intel. The plan was shotty at best and I would have to do a lot of on the fly judgement calls, however that was combat in a nutshell anyways.

"Alright this is what we're going to do..."

The land of Earth's landscape was extremely treacherous for those who didn't know how to navigate it. There were breaks in the ground, huge cliff drops, roaring rivers cutting between rock formations leading to huge waterfalls, and not to mention the rockslides and dust storms that would happen at random. The truth was in the land of Earth you could run but you could never hide good luck trying, if the shinobi didn't get you the elements or the landscape would. With this in mind we decided the best place to initiate the first wave of the ambush would be a mountain pass; a choke point. Their direction of travel was due east they had to come through here, there was one problem, they would be expecting this. In all military strategies the best ambushes are executed when the enemy formation is in terrain that doesn't allow much movement east or west, but forces them north and south. Its obvious so obvious that if I was PL of first platoon I wouldn't send my whole force through here, instead send a squad to spring the trap and have the rest of the platoon move down an alternate route.

"Sorry Fuuma, I'm asking a lot out of you and your squad" I said as we finished placing her squad in the pass.

"Shut-up will ya, we can do this much no problem" she said with a smirk " You just make sure you get that intel, so we can show those smug bastards who really deserve to be ninja."

I simply nodded and began my movement back to the rest of the platoon. When I arrived I grabbed Josai's squad split them into three teams and began to place them 200 meters to the east and west of the pass.

"Sure you got this Josai?" I asked

He nodded "Of course, you can depend on me Yuudai." He said while pushing up his glasses a bit.

"Alright, depending on the size of the element that enters the pass you may have to push out a bit further."

"Roger."

I left to then get Aoi's squad and we placed ourselves 200 meters away from the enemy target point for the mission. I pressed the button on my collar to speak into my mic.

"Squad leaders, radio check."

"This is SQL 1, I hear you" Fuuma responded.

"This is SQL 2, loud and clear" Josai said.

"This is SQL 3, roger" Aoi said.

"Alright stay alert, the enemy should be making there way to us in 3 mikes, prepare to engage and intercept."

"Roger"

Let's hope this goes right.

 **A/N: Sorry for this short chapter this one just didn't want to come out. So our hero's graduation will be coming soon but I'm still coming up with what the graduation test will be so bear with me on this. I love writing this story its just kinda hard because I have no references to how Iwa works as a village. I mean sure there are some bits from the cannon but not enough. Anyways thank you again for reading hope you return and as always I appreciate all of you for taking time out to read my story... until next time my friends.**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 4

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We didn't wait long before first platoon sprung our ambush. I was confident that first squad would be able to take a few out and break their will a bit. That was until I heard Fuuma come on the net requesting back-up.

" Fuuma what's going on?!, report!" I yelled into my mic. No response.

"Yuudai would you like, for a team from my squad to assist her?" Josai asked. I really didn't want that it would break our formation.

"Go ahead, assist first squad quickly and give me an update."

"Roger."

Damn things were already going south and I've already been forced to break my formation. I waited for what seemed like an eternity until I heard Josai come back on the radio.

"Yuudai!, come in!"

" go ahead" I said.

"This is bad their whole platoon entered the pass," I could hear the clash of blunted kunai and Fuuma shouting various orders and expletives " we are out numbered and first squad has taken heavy casualties."

Goddamnit.

"Pull back now! We need to regro-"

"WE CAN'T! THEY HAVE US COMPLETELY SURROUNDED!" Fuuma yelled through her mic nearly causing me to lose my hearing in my left ear, How did I fuck up this bad? I had no time to waste, I needed to get them out of there so we can regroup.

"Aoi! bring your squad we are going to help." She nodded and informed her squad and we took of as fast as we could. I'm sure we beat the 200m dash world record with how fast we got to the pass. I could see Fuuma and Josai, as well as a few of our comrades who hadn't been taken out fighting numerous attacks. They were on the defensive and Josai had erected a few walls with the mud wall jutsu to block the enemy's line of sight so they couldn't fire off ranged jutsu or attacks.

I quickly entered the battle by kicking an attacker off Fuuma and we quickly put our backs to each other.

"Bout' time, I was beginning to worry you was just gonna leave us here to die" Fuuma said looking over her shoulder. I snorted.

"Tch, I wouldn't do that and you know it, so save it we got more pressing matters to attend to." I said as I pulled a kunai out my pouch. We pushed off each other and entered the fray again, a girl met me and we clashed kunai I ducked a roundhouse kick aimed for my head. I felt another presence and rolled to my right to avoid a up-kick to my body. I then felt heat shoot over top of me. Fuuma had just let loose a fire jutsu on my attackers, I then turned my head to my right and saw a group heading straight for her left flank. I rolled onto my stomach and flew through the hand seals.

"Earth release: Swamp pit!" I yelled as I put my palm to the ground and felt the chakra release out of my body and into the earth. The ground under the group warped and then sunk them into a pit of reddish murky water. Aoi was quickly above them and shot down a stream of lightning putting the group out of commission. I rose to my feet looked to my left to see Josai in a difficult 3 on 1 situation, I moved quickly and rammed my shoulder into a kid right before he attacked Josai.

"Need some help?" I asked.

"No, I was doing just fine" He chuckled. Our two enemies looked at us and hesitated before one began to charge. Then what looked like a red comet crashed down on top of him, Fuuma exited the crater she left behind, his friend looked stunned but he too charged and Aoi slammed into him with an elbow, then grabbing his arm and slamming him right on his back. The battle was still raging but I still had my mind focused on the mission. These guys were fighting awfully hard... like they were trying as best they could to keep us here. Fuck.

"Fuuma! follow me, Aoi, Josai stay here if you need some back-up there is a team in Josai's squad still on stand-by" I yelled and I was off with Fuuma close behind me.

" Where are we headed?" Fuuma asked now matching my pace.

" They are fighting to keep us there, they used our own trap against us, so that means our target is nowhere near here." I said. A group of from first platoon jumped in our path. " See what I mean," Fuuma walked in front of me.

"Heh, like they even could stop us," she did some hand seals and inhaled " Fire release: Dragon king's flame!" A stream of flame came out her mouth and it fanned the entire area. After her Jutsu cleared a path we began moving again towards the pass's exit. As we exited I quickly made a sharp cut to the west.

"Why are we going west?"

" Because when we came to help you guys we grabbed one of the teams from Josai's squad who was stationed on the west side of the pass, by logic that whole side is undefended and is the path of least resistance."

" So with that being said, how are the two of us going to stop a possible team size element?"

" I have absolutely no clue but-"

"What the fuck Yuudai!" Fuuma yelled cutting me off " I don't know what fantasy world your head is in but you need to get back to reality there is no way we can-"

" We can, and we will no point walking into a battle believing you already lost."

She just sighed " fine, fine but just wait you'll hear me after this."

I simply smiled 'I'm sure I will.'

We continued our dash west and after a good 300 meters of running I could feel their chakra. Four of them, two on four not good odds and depending on who was in that group it could plummet to terrible odds. As we got closer to intercept them I felt Ryojin's chakra and I'm sure he could feel mines, yeah this just went from bad to worse. Now they were in eyesight and I pushed as much chakra as I could into my legs and sent myself crashing into Ryojin.

"Damn you who- Yuudai!" Ryojin said as we both got up.

" In the flesh." I responded pulling out a kunai. I looked over the group quickly, heh the four future heads of the tribes were all here how fitting, too good to get your hands dirty I'll fix that.

"Yuudai, causing us problems again I see"

" Of course, Jin-sama" I said with some mirth in my voice. Jin was the heir to the Tsu tribe and was called one of the geniuses in our class. Some said he would become one of the best if not the best in our generation. I was his sparring partner back home and let's just say we had some great fights, I'm talking the kind that leaves you gasping for air and muscles screaming every time you move to launch another attack.

"I see you brought Fuuma with you as well, so I guess you're not here to stall." He said glancing over his shoulder.

"Are you sure? you know I love putting up smokescreens." I said with a smirk.

"Positive, otherwise you would have brought Josai, he has a fighting style that is more suited to keeping an opponent in one spot for a period of time, instead you brought your fiercest fighter you're looking to either crush us here, or at least take two of us out the picture so your allies can intercept the others, correct?"

I began to laugh, no wonder why my plan went down the tubes.

"And you wonder why I stopped playing go and shogi with you, now I have to start changing my tactics completely" I said trying to quell my amusement. " Well, it's your move what will you do Jin-sama?" He pulled out two kunai.

"Does this answer your question?" He said getting into his stance " Ryojin, Mikoto, Keita go leave them to me." He said calmly. They didn't hesitate and began to move again.

" Fuuma, go after them have Josai and Aoi meet up with you. I'll deal with this." She hesitated for a bit but then nodded and ran after Jin's allies. " Now then."

A wicked smile grew on Jin's face.

" Let us begin Yuudai!" He said as he charged me.

I dodged the first slash to my throat then traded metal with his kunai halting his second attack, I then countered with a kick that he dodged I then pushed off my plant leg and rotated my momentum forward and slammed my leg into his forearm. He promptly push both arms up causing me to flip backwards and as soon as I landed I felt his knee slam into my chest, making me gasp. I rolled backwards out of control for a bit but I was able to recover back to my feet, and he gave me no time to ready myself as I was now parrying an onslaught of kunai slashes and jabs.

"Come now Yuudai wha-" Jin couldn't finish his taunt as I kicked him in the gut and sent him rolling away.

"Remember the number one rule when we fight," I made my hand signs and ended in the rat seal " no words just action, lightning release: lightning bullet!" A stream of lightning shot towards Jin who rolled right to evade, then he jumped up to his feet and began coming at me I took a few more shots none of them connecting. The last shot looked like it phased through him.

Body flicker.

Then I felt my whole world turn to my left forcibly and I got an instant headache. I hit the ground and felt his foot connect with my gut sending me backwards, his chakra flared tipping me off that I had better get my senses together I slammed my hand to the earth. " Earth release: Swamp pit!" The sudden change in terrain caused his aim to be thrown off as a streak of lightning whizzed past my head. I had made a big mistake I used that jutsu without hand seals causing it to be more of a strain on my reserves, no time to dwell on it as Jin pulled himself out of the pit. I was on top of him quickly driving my knee into his chin then landing a backfist to the side of his temple before kicking him back into the pit. He landed on top of the water and I jumped in after him. From the moment I hit the water he was giving me all he had, and I in turn did the same. We fought technique be damned, we fought hard, he would connect with a combination and send me sliding back and then he would make a slight mistake and I was quick to capitalize on and have him reeling for a bit as I would land my own combination. I was beginning to lose vision in my left eye due to it swelling, my ribs protested every breath I took, I was in pain all over I wanted to fall, to collapse and rest. I looked at Jin and he looked no better, this was why we loved fighting each other we knew we would both give it everything we had and then some. We made a dash for each other and mirrored eachothers movement when we cocked our fist back.

BAM!

We glued our fist to each others faces, both of us unwilling to let the other have this victory. My knees began to shake under my own weight, my vision blurred, my arms felt like lead and I began to fall. I heard a horn go off before I hit the water.

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My world was still black, ugh did I go off and die again? I could hear voices, guess I'm not dead yet. God Fuuma was loud, she was yelling at someone who pissed her off? My vision began to return a bit.

"...Go... hell"

"...Oh...do...about...mouth...yours."

Ok who ever this was had terrible hospital manners, I fully regained my vision staring at a white ceiling.

"Fuuma shut-up, please my head hurts" I rasped.

Her attention was on me in a heartbeat.

"Bout' time you woke up, you idiot" she said with an unimpressed look. I looked to my left and saw Aoi and Josai standing there. Across from me was Jin and the other tribe heirs, apparently Fuuma was having a heated discussion with her family heir; Keita.

"What has gotten Fuuma in a rage now?" I asked.

" It's a lover's spat, her and the head of the tribe Keita are supposed to get married later in life." Aoi said to me.

" This is not a lover's spat! I don't love him and I never will, Your house already took my eldest sister as one of your father's concubines so be happy and leave me be you won't keep me from being a shinobi." She said with finality in her voice.

"Oh, Fuuma nothing terrible has become of your sister my otou-san was just trying to stop yours from rebelling against the main house." Keita said "honestly."

"Then why did my otou-chan get sent to the Kokushoku mines?!" She yelled " You know that is a death sentence for him with how poor his health is! You monsters could have done anything but that is just unforgivable, and then you have the nerve to sit there and talk like you can just marry me whenever you get ready, like I'm not a human being."

The more I learn about each of my friends the more I want to change things this was out of control. The main houses and the wealthy ran everything all the way down to how the poor lived their lives. I can see why my okaasan would tell me I needed to be strong, power respects power. If I was going to try and change anything I needed to obtain power but power brings nothing but pain does not matter who is wielding said power. Even if one thinks their cause is a noble one there will be someone who sees it differently, thus will try to crush your power with theirs, destroy your ideas and replace them with their own.

Man why am I giving myself a damn headache over this right now.

"Alright, how about everyone relax for a bit." Josai said " everyone is still trying to recover from today's battle, right?"

" Can it, four-eyes" Fuuma snapped back. I could see the vein pop on Josai's forehead, but before he could say anything Fuuma took off out of the room. Ugh why was she so difficult. Soon the Instructors came and ordered everyone out to continue classes for the day leaving me and Jin in the room.

"Yuudai"

"Yes Jin-sama" I replied

"Do you hate the main house of the Tsu as Fuuma hates her main house?"

Ugh, why ask me jeez. I started not to answer but then I thought why bite my tongue my true feelings would show through my actions anyways, so their was no point in lying.

"I don't feel as strongly as she does, however I do believe so kind of freedom should be allowed to the branch families and we should be able to keep more of the money we make off our missions."

"Your family is poor?"

"Close to it the tribe dues your father imposes is pretty high, my okaasan is barely able to afford the cost of living and the dues, she has to take on more missions just to balance everything." I said as I plopped my head back down on the pillow.

"Hmm, Father said that we must treat your house like this because otherwise you'll rise up against us." he said.

"Nothing fans the flames of revolution more than the mistreatment of one's fellow man, people are more likely to revolt against a tyrant than a kind caring ruler, of course you if you break people's will then you'll be able to subjugate them for a time but then what will you do when you run across someone whose will you can't break?"

"You will kill them." Jin said simply

"And what if you can't kill them?" I jabbed back

"Every man can be killed."

" I'm not talking about his body of course you can kill that, I'm talking about his ideas; his spirit. That you can't touch." I said.

" I'm not sure I follow, please explain it more to me."

Man it really sucks being eleven with the mind of a twenty-three year old.

"ok it's simple actually, our lives we live today right now was thought up of by people in the past, the nations, the village's, shinobi life, everything started out as an idea. These ideas still are living to this day even though the people who thought of them are long gone from this earth." I explained " so no matter what you can't kill ideas... unless someone comes up with a better one than the last, and then gets people to agree that it is a good idea as well and gets behind it. What you then have is the makings of a revolution."

"Is there a way to stop a revolution cleanly?" he asked

"Ha, never either the old way is done away with willingly or one of the opposing sides have to be completely wiped out no way around it."

"Will you start a revolution?"

Trick question.

"Depends" I sighed " on how much I want to fight you again after this last time, I have a feeling the older we get the more destructive our battles will become.

Jin just chuckled " You're probably right."

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I fell asleep after my conversation with Jin and was sound asleep until I felt a poke to my cheek, then another. There was only one person...

"What, Fuuma?" I asked as I cracked one eye open and looked at her. She looked surprised for a second and then her usual frown set in.

"I was just coming to see if you were ok," she looked away "that's all."

" No you was not, you already seen that I was ok earlier." I shot back. she turned to shoot back a smart comment but then closed her mouth. " So what's on your mind?" I asked.

"It's nothing... Really-"

"Well then, if it's nothing I guess I'll be on my way back to sawing logs." I responded and closed my eye.

"nonononono, alright it's something." she said. I cracked my eye back open."I wanted to ask you a favour."

"ok, what is it then?" I asked. She fidgeted in her seat, if Fuuma was this uneasy it must have been something important to her and just her talking to me about it well that would double her anxiety. " Just say-"

" JOIN THE SPECIAL OPS CORPS WITH ME!" She blurted out and then clamped her hand over her mouth.

Huh? Join, the special ops corps? Well that's a shocker.

Honestly I didn't even know what corps I was going to try for, But I'll tell you special ops was last on the list. Iwa didn't have Anbu no we had special ops. In other villages you would obtain the rank of chunin before being brought into Anbu or any other specialty corps. Iwa was different you had six "regiments" or "corps", the engineering corps, the scout corps, the explosion corps, the medical corps, the intelligence/ decoding corps, and finally you had the special ops corps. Now the process to go special ops wasn't for the faint of heart. The six week probation/ training period was absolute hell, you are fed just enough to have energy, given four hours of sleep a day... not consecutive hours either. You're In the field the whole time running missions with no break between them, fighting off ambushes at night and in the day if you sit in one spot for too long, I will say if you survive that after you just graduated the academy you would definitely be on par with a chunin easily not to mention all the information you would have access too in terms of jutsu. When you think about it for someone who wants to be strong it is the perfect opportunity.

I sat up and looked at Fuuma.

"Why do you want me to join with you? I mean surely there are others you can ask."

"Of course but they aren't as capable as you are, I've been watching you-"

" Stalker" I deadpanned. Fuuma punched me in the shoulder. "Ow, I'm still recovering."

"Not like that, you idiot I mean I see you don't panic under stress, your somewhat studious your combat instincts are some of the best in our class, and you strive to improve everyday, and I trust you enough that I'm willing to ask."

"Let me guess, Josai and Aoi agreed already and if I try and hold out they will just pester me until I give in, right?"Fuuma said nothing but found her feet very interesting. I sighed. "Fine, I'll do my best." At this her head shot up.

" Really?! you're not being an ass about this are you?" She asked

" No, I'm not, where are you cooking up all these terrible notions about me?"

" No where," she hopped up and smiled " well goodnight, Yuudai see you in class tomorrow"

Fuuma took her leave and I fell back into bed.

Kami what did I just agree to?

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 **A/N: Well, well back again before my usual weekly update. I really had fun writing this chapter the revealing of the tribe heirs as well as a bit of backstory on Fuuma, Don't worry you'll find out about Josai soon enough. Next chapter will be the end of the our hero's academy days and the beginning of his six weeks of hell with his three best pals, don't worry motives and all will be explained in time. Also I was added to a second community as well getting close to over 400 views this month again it's all thanks to you the reader. As I always say and will continue to say thank you for reading once again and stay tuned… until next time my friends.**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 5

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After succeeding in the force on force exercise, my platoon went through the final weeks of the academy with confidence. I watched as usual timid and shy kids turn into warriors on the field of battle. There was no longer hesitation in our steps, no fear in our actions, we had crossed the threshold from children to soldiers. It's a shame that at such a young age that we were ready to die for the village, in my old world I couldn't imagine being eleven and being sent off to war or on dangerous missions but here this was reality. It really began to hit me that I'm a tool of destruction to be used against the enemies of the the hidden stone and the sharper of a tool I became the more the other villages will want to kill me just so my village didn't have that weapon anymore. Of course with me agreeing to go with Fuuma, Josai, and Aoi to the special ops corps, should we make it, it would then only be a matter of time before we became truly feared shinobi. To be honest I feared that idea.

For some odd reason I feared the power that could be obtained in this world, what's the old saying 'absolute power corrupts absolutely.' I'm human not some benevolent being, I know for a fact one wrong push, one wrong action, hell one wrong feeling and then darkness will begin the process of changing who I am fundamentally look at what happened to Orochimaru. Even still with all of that swimming in my head I found myself outside working on combining my two nature affinities. Now what I was attempting was against the rules because I wasn't being supervised, however, I didn't care much for the rules I cared about results. I sat in my meditation pose, trying to focus on my chakra. I could feel it circulate through me but that wasn't enough so I began to focus harder, I needed to feel something different something that I had not felt before. A change, a abnormality, I tried something new I decided to focus on one side of my body completely losing feeling in the other half. Then I felt it my chakra vibrating like it does when I use lightning ninjutsu but only on one side, hmm interesting... What if?

I then did the same to my left side and felt my chakra trying to solidify and become hard like earth. Something was keeping it from doing so... My eyes snapped open.

Of course.

In the balance of ninjutsu natures earth is weak against lightning, so right now my chakra is not one due to my nature's clashing in the middle. So if I want to use the explosion release I have to first be able to tame and combine two natures that don't get along. I closed my eyes again and began to focus once more, I felt my right side vibrate and my left harden, I tried to mix them and my left side began to go numb.

Not good.

I quickly separated the elements and waited to regain feeling in my left side. I attempted to mix them again but this time putting more focus into strengthening my left side and then I could feel the vibration in my right side begin to die and my body got cold. I stopped again and soon I felt my chakra vibrate again and warmth returned to my body. What the hell? I then tried hand seals, and that made a difference just a bit, but still no dice. Frustrated I broke my meditation and threw my hands up.

" Ugh, man ninjutsu is complicated" I mumbled to myself. It was a challenge for sure but the show made it look so easy. It made being a shinobi look and seem easy like if you just gave us chakra we could pull of the same feats, oh but how quickly we forget ninjutsu is a martial art and would take years for me to even come close to being a threat with it. Hours of training and meditation and dedication to the art, only that would lead to mastery of the art. Seeing as I was committed to going special ops and trying to bring some form of change to the hidden stone I needed a specialty and I decided that ninjutsu would be that specialty. I was going to master all five elements... well that was my goal didn't know if I would get there but I was going to do everything possible to get there. I looked up into the night sky I was surprisingly a clear night, I could make out all the astronomical points we were taught for night and sea navigation. I sighed and stood up.

"Well, I should get some rest I do have a graduation test tomorrow." I said as I made my way back into the academy.

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Exam day was finally here, as we all sat in the sparring hall you could feel the tension. So kids seemed nervous but still confident, others were just out right boasting on how they were gonna smash this test into dust. I for one was a little on edge Iwa's graduation test was never the same, from what okaasan told me her and Akako-obaasan graduation tests were different. So we had no idea what we would be tested on, it could be a written test for all we knew. Soon the instructors came strolling in and all attention snapped to their figures standing in front of the chalkboard.

"Class #2867 congratulations on making it to exam day, you all have done well to make it to this point." The classroom remained quiet. " Now so you all know your test has already begun, you have lived here for over a year but I'm not sure if you truly know this place, seeing how both platoons were caught up in class and tribe squabbles." Oh, so that was by design? Damn clever. " You have one hour to free yourselfs, should you not be able to you fail and will have to repeat, good luck."

All the instructors disappeared in a puff of smoke. Everyone made a scramble for the door, desperate to figure out how to get out of whatever we were trapped in. Already lost their bearing, jeez it's just graduation no biggie.

"How long are you planning on sitting there Yuudai?" Fuuma asked.

"When I get over how terrible of a graduation exam this is." I said in a bored tone. This was really a waste of time. What we were under was a anchor area genjutsu, the user has anchored his chakra to an object in the academy and so in order to break said genjutsu one must make contact with the object and then release themselves. Okaasan's genjutsu was way more complicated and harder to release so this was child's play. I simply rose out of my seat and motioned for the my friends to follow. The clan heirs had already came to the same conclusion and were also making there way to the anchor point.

"Man couldn't they have been a little more creative?" I asked to no one in particular

" Well look at it like this, we will be done with the academy and move on to some real shinobi training" Fuuma said with excitement " I can't wait to start doing missions too."

We continued down the halls of the academy dodging students running around with no sense of direction or what they were doing, How? Even some kids from second platoon were acting like this which made me feel like a failure as a leader, like I didn't do enough to help them think on their own not needing someone who outranks them to do it for them. I guess it was easy for me to say when I already had the mindset to think for myself despite what someone else was telling me to believe, so even if I tried to teach them to think for themselves the academy's instructors had probably beaten it out of them with more propaganda and making examples of those who dare to be different, their will to be an individual was broken now it was all about the collective. The herd mentality.

We finally entered the classroom were the anchor point was. Now here came the tricky part; finding the anchor. From what my okaasan taught me a caster can use multiple points that have to be released at the same time, or one singular point the best way to find the point or points was to focus on the chakra in the area, and then find the abnormality. I could do all that or...

" Aoi, did you find it?" I asked

" Yes, it's the sensei's desk" She touched the desk " Release!" she commanded

The classroom warped and twisted until another room came into being, with the instructors all standing behind a desk with the village's headbands on it in neat rows.

" Congratulations students, you have passed the exam and from today forward are Iwagakure shinobi, step forward and receive your headbands." The instructor said with pride in his voice. We did so and immediately fasten them to our foreheads, the weight was new and I could feel the cold metal behind the red cloth it was attached to. I felt a ton of emotions at one time, pride, fear, excitement, depression, happiness, and sadness. We all sat in the student's desk and waited for more kids to warp their way into the classroom, I could hear Fuuma and Aoi talking amongst themselves, I was so lost in my own emotions it took Josai nudging me to get my attention.

" Hey, man you ok?" Josai asked " you seem a bit out of it right now, are you that happy?"

" I don't know what I am right now honestly," I answered. I folded my arms in front of me and rested my head on top of them. " I feel like... This will be the last time I get to be carefree, things were easy here and now they will get difficult."

" Isn't that what we want as shinobi? a challenge?"

"eh, maybe." I said " doesn't matter either way now we are heading to special ops, oh by the way why are you going into the special ops corps?"

Josai chuckled for a minute and then looked at me " I don't know" he said. I started to laugh now.

" So we are in the same boat huh? How is the girls have their motives to become strong but we as boys don't? Its sad."

" It is but maybe, its because we want to protect them. Would you trust their care to anyone else?" he asked.

" Would you trust a main house member to take a kunai for you?"

Josai burst into a fit of laughter as did I.

"What are you two idiots, laughing about?" Fuuma asked.

" Nothing." I said trying to regain my wits. " Just a male inside joke."

" Hmph, you males and your sexist jokes, I'd be surprised if you two can even find a wife later in life." Fuuma said jabbing her finger at both of us. Josai and I looked at each other.

" This coming from the hot-tempered" I said.

" Fouled-mouth" Josai continued.

"Red-haired midget of the group." I finished and we bust out into laughter again.

Of course Fuuma didn't take kindly to our teasing well and began to threaten us with a beating only reason she wasn't doing it now is thanks to Aoi holding her back. That girl is a saint for putting up with us.

More and more kids broke the genjutsu and the seats began to fill. More kids from second platoon passed than from first... not that I was keeping count or anything. The hour passed and there were 68 of us who passed out of 110, so little more than half the class passed which by Iwa's standards was ok? The instructors didn't seem troubled by it. They then began their last speech to us, it lasted and hour but I can sum it up in one sentence; 'Train hard for the village, fight hard for the village and if need be lay your life down for the village and the Tsuchikage.' One last shot of propaganda before we left.

As we exited the academy there were all the parents of the ones who graduated waiting in the front courtyard. Kids ran into their parents arms with tears for joy, having not seen them for a year and a half. Fuuma had ran off to her mom the moment she saw her, yelling 'momma' the whole time, I filed that moment away for next time she called me soft to tease her with. Aoi had left saying that her father was working and would make it I didn't question it, Josai had also found his parents too. I was left alone for a while until I felt a presence behind me.

" Not gonna congratulate your nephew?" I asked turning to see Akako-obaasan there with a big grin on her face.

" Oh, so you get your headband and now think you deserve some praise?" she said with a chuckle. " Man, you young ones are bold."

I laughed at that.

" Where is okaasan?" I asked.

" She's at home finishing up your meal, I know that the academy's food isn't the best am I right?" She asked.

My stomach instantly began to growl at the thought of okaasan's cooking. I know everyone says this but I think my okaasan's food is the best in the village. We then left the courtyard making our way to the Tsu branch family compound. Akako-obaasan asked me about my time in the academy, and I told her about Fuuma, Aoi , and Josai and my time as the platoon leader. She laughed at the fact that they allowed me to even be platoon leader, implying that there had to be someone more suited for the job. As we entered the compound I had gotten a lot of congratulations and some of the younger members asking me to train with them to prepare them for their time in the academy. I said some thanks, and made some hasty promises that I knew I would regret later but whatever got me to my house faster I'd make that sacrifice. I made it to my front door and slid it open.

" Tadaima!" I shouted as I took my sandals off.

" Okaeri." Okaasan replied.

I smelt the food wafting through the house I could pick out each dish, all of which were my favorites; Shabu-shabu, Takoyaki, Curry, Tonkatsu, and my all-time favorite Tamagoyaki. I raced into the dining room to see a feast laid out on the table and my okaasan sitting there with her trademark smile, warm and welcoming, I walked over to her tears pricking my eyes it has been a year and a half. I hugged her and she returned it.

" You've grown a lot, Yuudai." She said softly and I just nodded into her shoulder. " There, there, we can't stay like this the food will get cold."

I broke away and walked over to my spot at the table.

" Congratulations, Yuudai, now eat I'm sure you have missed your okaasan's cooking."

" More than you know" I said with a smile "Itadakimasu!"

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The next day I had to get up early to go fill out my paperwork for the special forces with the rest of the group, seeing as how we are entering training as a four man cell already. I really wished I could have gotten to sleep in, however I rather not hear Fuuma's yelling at 6 in the morning. I met up with everyone on the main bridge that connected to the Tsuchikage's tower. The only one that seemed awake was Fuuma.

"Come on guys, you look dead have some enthusiasm." She said joyfully.

" Easy for you to say," Josai said with sleep permeating his voice. " Just a while ago I was dead, dead sleep."

" Really Fuuma," I moaned " did we have to do this at 6 in the morning?"

She looked at me and frowned.

" Yes, otherwise you two idiots would never get out of bed."

She had a point I really wasn't planning on leaving my bed at all today, the world could have gone to hell in a handbasket and I still wouldn't have gotten up.

"You just gonna say us, Aoi looks just as tired." I protested

" Yea but the difference is she's not talking, you are now can it." Fuuma said and I argued no further it would have been a waste I mean I'm already out here.

We entered the massive stone tower and made our way to the basement. We walked down the spiral staircase lit by torches on both sides causing our shadows to dance as the flames flickered with our passing. The main desk was occupied by one shinobi who looked about as excited to see us as I was to get out of bed.

" What you guys want?" He said with a gruffness to his voice.

" We would like to enter training for the special forces corps" Fuuma said proudly.

He gave us a once over.

" Heh, you kids are either bold, or just plain insane but alright," He pulled out a scroll and a brush " sign your names here." We did so and he gave it a look and nodded. " alright, so you will come back here in a month, at 4 in the morning, you'll go through that door to my left your right, wear combat clothes and only bring what you can carry. Understood?"

"Yes, sir" we all said and left the desk. As we made our way up we passed Jin, Mikoto, Keita, and Ryojin.

" Jin-sama" I said a little shocked " What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same, I didn't know you were interested in the special forces corps, Yuudai." Jin responded.

"Fuuma, you know this way beyond your ability, why are you here?" Keita asked.

Oh man, that's about to set her off, at least that's what I thought but Aoi stepped in front of Fuuma.

" Keita-dono I have to ask you to refrain from insulting my comrade, I don't believe you have room to talk after all she defeated you in the mock platoon battle one on one-"

" That was a fluke! She caught me off guard." Keita interjected.

" And you want to join special forces?" Josai asked. " You do realize you get caught off guard behind enemy lines your dead, right?" Keita clenched his teeth.

" Yuudai you shouldn't even show up, you're not stronger than me." Ryojin taunted.

Challenge accepted. I tapped Josai.

" Yo, did you hear something?" I asked he instantly picked up the joke.

" No, I did not I think you must be hearing things Yuudai" He responded sarcastically

" No I swear, it sounded like a weakling was trying to talk tough." I said and snapped my eyes to Ryojin. He looked furious.

" You wanna settle this score?!" He yelled

" Stop, don't speak to me you have no right to, I don't converse with people who are all bark and no bite." I said dismissively.

"Yuudai, hold your tongue Ryojin is still a member of the main house of the Ko tribe." JIn said to me leaving no room for argument. Killjoy. " Come now, let us be on our way." Jin continued down the staircase with his team in tow.

"Fuuma, you ok?" Aoi asked. She didn't answer, I walked up and slapped her on the back.

" THE FUCK WAS THAT FOR YUUDAI?!" She screamed. Hot tears still in her eyes.

" There you are that's the Fuuma I know, don't who that timid thing was a minute ago, but good to see your back." I said and smiled at her. " Hey look we know you're strong, you've proven it time and time again. No need to let him rile you up, plus you got us," I motioned to the group " No matter what we'll be here to support you, so how about we all get some training in we got a month to prepare." She looked away from me and rubbed her eyes.

" Alright, but I won't go easy on any of you." She said with a sniff.

" We wouldn't have it anyother way." Josai said and Aoi nodded.

We made our way out of Tsuchikage tower, the sun was just peaking the horizon coloring the village in shades of oranges, red, and pinks mixing with the still night sky above. We had a ton to work on if we would even feel close to ready for the trial that awaited us. I never been more motivated to train before and I think it is because I found something I wanted to get stronger for. I guess if it's for my teammates I'll become a strong shinobi and help start the change this village desperately needs.

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A/N: Finally done with the academy, look if you was expecting a brutal graduation test then… sorry? I mean Iwa needs numbers that is how their village works so they won't have a test that will cut more than half of their potential force right out the gate. An army needs and steady supply of fresh blood to sustain itself. Anyways I'd like to say Thank You to Silver Queen for adding me to her community and for giving me the initial inspiration for this story. As well things are gonna get interesting from now on, Oh and If you are wondering why Deidara and Kurotsuchi hasn't been mentioned… relax in due time gotta set some other things in place. Oh and don't worry I won't make their special ops training into an arc that's just stupid and a lot of writing and wasted time. So as I always say thank you for reading… until next time my friends.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 6

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The month flew by without much incident, I mean when you are on a cycle of train, eat, train, bathe, sleep and then repeat not much happens around you that you are aware of. Our report day for special forces selection was here and I was just rising from my deep slumber to prepare myself for the task at hand. After washing my face brushing my teeth and taming my long black hair (that I'm still not use to) into its usual single ponytail and dressing myself I was off into the early morning darkness. It was cold enough that you could see your breath, winter was almost here and in the land of earth they were brutal. It would snow but only on the tops of the mountains but it did get bone chillingly cold, temperature could sometimes drop into the negatives but with our whole village being made of stone and the Suki tribe being the engineering geniuses that they were designed a heating system throughout the whole village that kept it warm through the winter months.

I took to the rooftops seeing as it would be quicker than using the labyrinth of bridges below. We were meeting up at Tsuchikage's tower an hour early because like idiots all four of us forgot to go to supply and get our issued shinobi gear, to which okaasan lectured me extensively to stop being so forgetful. I neared my destination and pushed chakra to my legs and leaped off the last rooftop and landed in front of my friends.

" Late as always, Yuudai-kun," Aoi said with a smile.

" Good morning to you as well, Aoi, everyone" I responded as I knocked the dust off myself from my landing.

"Well, you weren't that late, only two minutes late" Fuuma clarified. " Let's go."

We all filed behind Fuuma and walked to the second floor to the central issuing office. We talked with the shinobi on duty there who quickly took our sizes and began shoving clothes and gear in our hands. We didn't get the traditional red and brown Iwa shinobi wear, instead we got black gi's and mesh undershirts and pants ( which are uncomfortable as fuck) a pair of black pants, and a winter cloak.

" Is this what special forces get issued?" I asked the clerk.

" Just those who are going through the selection process, if you pass that then depending on what kind of specialty they assign your squad you will get more specialized gear. "

That was good to know at least.

After getting changed we made our way downstairs to the basement to wait. Jin and his group was already waiting along with a few more people in total I'd say twenty so 4 four-man squads. It was tense wait but as soon as the clock struck 4 everyone began to move through the door off to the right of the help desk. It was a short walk but soon I could feel an uneasy sensation settle in my gut, great perfect time for nerves to set in. We reached a giant hall with a second story balcony going in a circle around and at its ends were staircases, the group began to separate back into their respective teams due to the new space and in a flash a person with a cloak and hood on appeared before us.

" Welcome to you all, I glad to see so many participants in today selection, I hope you are prepared?" it asked and no one responded. " I'll take that as a yes, let's not waste time then," five large scrolls appeared in front of the mystery person. " Here are the tasks we have picked out for you to complete, each scroll contains a mission briefing, each one is a A-ranked mission, now you will have six weeks to complete said mission, you are operating independently of the village we have each one of your records and will dispose of them should you be captured,"

Man damn, that is a dead sentence to everyone here should we get caught, basically we will have no backup period. If things get ugly you have to dig yourself out of it and should they get deadly then well... die.

" Of course you will be allowed to withdraw from the mission at any time and nothing will happen to you our your squad, however you will be permanently banned from attempting the selection course again, understood?" it asked.

" Yes," we all said in unison.

" Oh, by the way leave your headbands here on the desk we wouldn't things to get tied back to us now would we?"

After placing our headbands on the desk we then picked a scroll and began to read it's contents.

" Aw, shit why did we pick this one?! it's going to be so boring" Fuuma said placing her knuckles into her cheek. I began reading over her shoulder as did everyone else.

"Picking up intel, from an informant in the hidden leaf, huh? That is actually pretty dangerous" Josai said sagely.

Dangerous isn't the word I would use let's try... Suicidal, crossing the land of fire's borders without travel paperwork would be tricky, but then infiltrating a ninja village without paper work was damn near impossible, and to even get travel papers takes longer than six weeks with all the background screening we would have to go through because we are from the land of Earth.

"Also there is a meeting place and a time, if we miss it..." Aoi trailed off implying what we all knew. Miss that hit time and we fail our mission. So the pressure was on right out the gate. We quickly memorized the rest of the details and were off to gather supplies. We couldn't carry too much food or water only enough to last for the trip to the border. We kept weapons to the bare minimum so about three kunai and ten shuriken. We wanted to look like travelers; civilian travelers, not shinobi. After all our prep work was done we set out, we started at a shinobi's pace so we could reach the border between Earth and Grass by nightfall.

"Josai, have you already started thinking of a plan to get us into Konohagakure?" I asked as we moved.

" Yes, however, it will be tricky especially with out paperwork or identification, but we do have a three weeks before the meeting with the informant so I'm sure we can come up with something," He said. I only hoped he was right otherwise this would get ugly quick, and by ugly I mean we would be dead with only a month of shinobi experience under our belt, talk about sad.

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After crossing our border and getting close to the border the land of Grass shared with the land of Fire, we began dampen our chakra trying to cover our movements as much as possible. The only thing I hoped for was that there wasn't a Hyuga on patrol or on duty at an outpost there would be no hiding from those eyes they possessed. Once we reached the border we split off of each other at least 300 to 500 meters to make it look less obvious we were traveling together and we slowed to a civilian pace to hide our shinobi capabilities. Crossing the border wasn't as hard as I thought it would be in fact I passed an outpost with a wave and smile to the shinobi on duty. Was Konoha that lax on security? Or did they not care about kids walking past their borders? Well whatever the case I was not complaining. I continued my journey and I began to think to myself, how slow I was moving.

I had gotten so use to moving at shinobi speed which wasn't slow at all, you could cover a mile in three minutes. Right now I felt as though I was moving at a snail's pace like the whole rest of the world was flying past me at break neck speed and I was just standing still. I knew at this pace it would take us a few days to reach our destination seeing as Konoha was located in the southern part of Fire country, but their security was so relaxed in fact as I pushed my senses out I could only feel the faint chakra signatures of my comrades, nothing else.

"Oh, to hell with this then," I said as I flared my chakra a bit. In a flash of body flickers I was surrounded by my comrades.

" The hell Yuudai we thought you were being attacked," Fuuma said looking around for enemy shinobi. " Don't scare us like that,"

" Awww, is Fuuma-chan worried for my well-being, I'm honoured" I said jokingly. She took a swing at me that I easily dodged.

" You know I hate that suffix, you dick."

"Anyways," Josai cut in. " What's up, Yuudai"

" It's there security, when you guys crossed the border did you run into any issues?" I asked

" No, not at all" Aoi answered as did Josai and Fuuma. " That is strange, but not every nation will be on high alert like ours is." Aoi concluded.

She did have a point, out of all the nations ours was the only one to never from any alliances with any of the other shinobi villages and the one time we did we stabbed them in the back hence why mist shinobi will kill an stone shinobi on sight, so there is a reason for us to defend our borders heavily, but this lack of urgency, this lack of worry in the air was unnerving, too welcoming.

" Well we should be able kick it back into shinobi pace, just keep a check on your chakra and not let it flair too much." I said. They nodded and took off again. I hopped up into the trees and landed on a branch. " Now then, let's see how easy this is," I said and began a most terrifying task of tree hopping. I pushed chakra into my legs and eyed my target, I leaped and overshot my landing target and fell to the ground landing with a thud. " Fuck, as I thought not easy at all." I dusted myself off and tryed again. After about 20 minutes of damn near killing myself I was finally able to keep a steady pace, but I couldn't lose focus so fighting up here was a no go for me.

As we approached Konoha night began to fall and I carefully flared my chakra a bit to sign for a meeting. As everyone appeared we began to discuss our plan to infiltrate the village.

" So, any bright idea's anyone?" I asked looking over the group.

" Nope, not one" Fuuma said with a sigh.

" Nobody was expecting you to have one anyways, thought is not your forte Fuuma" Josai said with a smirk.

" Fuck you, four-eyes," Fuuma spat.

" Fuuma, language." Aoi said simply. " Honestly we don't know the perimeter layout, so we should probably scout that out before making any plans."

" True, alright Josai with me we'll go scout," I said. "And, shut-up Fuuma."

" Fuck you, I didn't say anything," she defended

" But you were going to," She closed her mouth at that. " thought so, let's go Josai,"

It took us about 10 minutes to get within reasonable distance of the gate without being seen or heard. We then moved back and west through the forest. We made a clover pattern around the village making sure we remained concealed but still able to see and collect intel. Then we reached the backside of the village where the mountain was and began to scale the shallow side. We peeked over and to our joy it was undefended and just high enough that we could take to the trees for our landing. Josai and I hurried back to the girls to bring them to our new found entrance. After meeting back up it was then quickly decided that we infiltrate tonight, we still had about two weeks before the rendezvous with our informant but we also saw this as a chance to collect more intel than just what we were here for. Also unbenounced to by friends a chance for me to see where we were at in the timeline of "His" story.

We made our way back to the mountain and scaled it one by one, after everyone was over the side and we made sure no one had saw us we decided to rest for the night taking turns in two-man teams in the treetops.

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Morning came quickly and my senses were assaulted by the buzzing chakra in the village. It baffled me how anyone can grow accustomed to this overload of information at once. I could see the other were also having a hard time adjusting to the village. The girls seemed worse off with Fuuma complaining of a headache, and Aoi being very irritable which shocked us. We decided to look even more civilian and rid ourselves of the mesh armor we wore underneath our gi's. After we had changed we headed into the village center making sure we slowed the production of our chakra to that of a civilian, Which made life hell for us. If shinobi had a crutch it was chakra, we used it to regulate everything about our bodies from temperature to keeping our muscles from becoming sore and when you slow your chakra production which is different from damping or shrinking, what you are in a sense doing is shutting off chakra to everything but vital organs and even they get the minimum in order to do normal tasks, Now we were in a sense normal kids however when you use something all your life to just shut it of from parts of your body makes things a bit more uncomfortable. Plus the humidity, kami the humidity the fact that it is fall and it's still this hot and humid is a crime, for people who live in the mountains the air here is like trying to breath through a wet towel.

We decided that it would be best to split into two-man teams and observe the village like that. Fuuma and I went west and Josai and Aoi would take east.

" Why, are we always stuck together?" Fuuma asked in an irritated tone. I took a deep breath.

"Because, one you and Josai would do nothing but fight, and two you and Aoi are both extremely peeved right now and two females together both with fucked up attitudes just leads to a host of problems I don't want to deal with," I explained. "Watch out,"

I grabbed Fuuma out the way before an orange flash with a paint bucket took her out. Soon a group of shinobi hot on his tail flew past us.

" The hell are they doing?" Fuuma asked. I looked behind me and pointed.

" Probably trying to catch the person that did that," I said. The faces of the Hokage were riddled with graffiti with obscene words and pictures. Man it's hard to believe that the perpetrator of that prank would be the savior of the world, never judge a book by it cover I suppose.

" Are those the village's previous hokage? Man that little boy needs his ass beat."

I just chuckled at this and kept walking with Fuuma falling in step with me. As we ventured through the village my senses began to adapt and it wasn't as overwhelming as in the morning, it seemed Fuuma was also adapting well. We walked for hours looking at various infrastructure and making sure we kept marks on the security patrols as they moved throughout the village in teams of two. We tried as best we could to find weaknesses in their defense. Of course we were still genin not as experienced in our current undertaking so I'm sure the little details that we will remember from this place won't matter in fact I don't think the village will even ask for it. Konoha for a shinobi village was a pretty happy place people greeted you on the streets, helped you if you needed it not expecting anything in return, in Iwa yeah forget that someone does something for you then you can bet your ass you owe them something in return and you better deliver. It was kind of hard to believe these people treated Naruto with disdain well some of them not all were guilty of that.

As the day began to come to a close Fuuma and I stood on top of a bridge, looking down at our reflections down in the flowing river.

"What's with this place why is everyone here so happy?" Fuuma asked.

" It's simple because they are free, freedom brings happiness because it is a basic human desire to be free," I said. " Iwa is not free that's why people are unhappy there," I finished and looked to my left to see Aoi and Josai walking up to us.

" Yo guys, how was the sightseeing trip," I joked. Josai chuckled a bit.

" It was... eye opening to say the lest," he responded. " I mean, people are really happy here,"

" Nothing is perfect however," Aoi said "I did hear a story about an entire clan being murdered only leaving one survivor, this place has it's problems too."

She must have heard the story about the Uchiha clan, that was an ugly event that took place and to be honest should have never happened the third hokage should be ashamed. I get he was acting in the best interest of the village but can we honestly say that it was worth it.

"I see, so what do you think about our system back home?" I tested. I wanted to see where their heads were at. I wouldn't push them, I wanted them to come to their own conclusions and solutions.

" Terrible"

"Cruel"

" Disgusting"

All words were either said in pain or disdain, well I think I know what they are thinking... How do we bring about change? It's not an easy question to answer. You can try words but of course when you're dealing with an old system that benefits people at the top who have all the power and money they are NOT giving that up without a fight.

"We already said we will get stronger," Fuuma said " But we don't have a sensei, someone who can guide us this past month we trained hard and sure we all got a little better but at that pace,"

" It would take longer than we would like," Aoi finished.

That is another reason why Iwa was inferior in terms of shinobi development. You developed yourself especially if you came from a branch family, and kami help you should your family be civilians. The three man cell with a Jonin sensei plan works period look at Konoha and Suna, they produce excellent shinobi once you wouldn't want to get into a life or death battle with. Iwa was all about mass production of shinobi, keep pumping them out of the academy give them the basic and intermediate skill set and then your on your own to advance to the expert level. We had good shinobi to learn from but then that tribe shit would interfere and really stifle the development of not only other shinobi but their own. There is more than one way to skin a cat, unless you're an Iwa nin then there is only one to do everything.

" So we are here for sometime correct?" I asked and they nodded. " Well then there is a library here, filled with tons of information on a myriad of topics,"

" Yuudai are you suggesting that we steal books?" Fuuma asked.

" No, dummy he's saying that we find books on things we want to learn and study them," Josai said. " Man, I wonder if you really-"

Fuuma rush Josai and knocked him over the railing of the bridge and he hit the water and began to be taken down stream.

" Fucker, serves him right," Fuuma said dismissively " anyways, so we'll be hitting the books hard then huh?"

" We should get notebooks, I have a little bit of money my otou chan gave me for graduation, It's best we have notes to reference back to." Aoi said.

" Great Idea, okaasan gave me some money as well I'll get us an inn, so we can sleep comfortable and only have one person on guard." I added as I looked down stream. " Ummm, maybe we should go get Josai."

"Agreed, come on Fuuma," Aoi said grabbing Fuuma by the arm.

I looked up at the sky the sun's light was fading. I shighed

" Is this what you wanted? Kami-sama? To start a revolution, with a band of misfits? I swear your idea of a joke is so sick." I left to find my friends, I didn't know what that crazy man upstairs was plotting but something told me I'd find out soon enough.

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A/N: Well there you go this was really fighting me it's like I had the idea but it just kept coming out wrong, I restarted numerous times because of that. Well I tried to get through this mission in one chapter but yeah wasn't gonna happen, but I'm glad I was able to use Konoha to sew the seeds of rebellion in our heros now lets see how long it will take that seed to germinate. As always thanks for reading and liking the story… Until next time my friends.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 7

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As the week passed our time in Konoha was starting to weigh heavily on our Psyches. From the constant monitoring and controlling of our chakra to the out right lies we told to people on a daily basis to keep our cover. I can see why very few people are able to do this, Josai and Fuuma were great at deceiving people and thought nothing of it to tell a lie while looking someone in the eyes, Aoi and myself not so much we were the honest straightforward kind of people. The fact was we had to learn to kill that part in us that ties us to our fellow human; empathy. The fact that we as humans are social creatures therein lies a connection to understand one another's emotions with words or actions. It's strange actually that two people who never knew each other before could then build a bond based on a shared experience, However a shinobi has no need for empathy we can't see what we are doing as wrong even though we know deep down that it is that hinders our ability to complete the mission and the mission is paramount it transcends all things including life itself.

What helped me take my mind off the mission was reading, well research. I didn't read much in my old life unless it had to do with understanding something new or learning something new, So I never read books for fun, just for knowledge. That was what I was currently doing as I sat across from Aoi in the library. We were shocked at the amount of books here and the topics that they covered, almost anything you wanted to learn or expand on you could do it here. To which I was grateful for seeing as the library in Iwa was so strictly regulated to books only approved by the Tsuchikage and the heads of the four tribes. So we decided to take advantage of this wealth of knowledge and take down as many notes and titles of books down so that we can buy them later should we come across them on a mission outside the land of Earth. Aoi was currently fully immersed in a medical-ninjutsu book which wasn't surprising given her level of chakra control. I was currently studying chakra nature transformation to better understand all of the basic five elements. I even found a gold mine in a book that explained how one that had no affinity for a element could still use and eventually master it written by the third Hokage who had mastered all five elements. My happiness was quickly dashed when Josai came whispering my name harshly and motioning for me to come meet him in one of the book aisle. I rose and followed him to a secluded part of the library.

" What's got you flustered? Fuuma driving you nuts?" I joked. Josai's expression remained the same, this was serious. " What happened?" I asked while checking to make sure we were truly alone.

" Someone from the leaf other than the informant knows we're here," he stated, my heart jumped into my throat. " I was coming back from a sweets store when I felt the chakra of four shinobi in our room at the inn, I didn't stay around for long but also Fuuma wasn't in the immediate area of the inn either."

Goddamnit. Now my heart rate was up Konoha was on to us, possibly, and Fuuma is now for lack of a better word missing, great. I took a deep breath and calmed myself and tried to slow my racing heart.

" Ok, we'll spread out and look for her-"

" We can't the ninja on patrol are stopping random people and asking for identification, we'll be in deep shit if they catch us." Josai explained to me. Well now that put us between a rock and a hard place, and if Fuuma was either hiding or sitting in a cell right now we had no way of knowing. Our only option was to flee for now once we put some distance between us and the village could we come up with a solid plan of action. We walked back to the study area and grabbed Aoi and filled her in on the situation. We all decided to go back to the forest where we stayed for the first night and see if Fuuma was either there or would turn up. We avoided all main routes of travel in the village taking back roads and alleyways until we reached the woods, Fuuma was nowhere to be found we waited for 10 minutes and after that passed we snuck back out of the village and took off into the surrounding forest and made camp about 20 miles out.

It was midday by this point and lucky we were able to escape in broad daylight like this but still I couldn't shake the fact that we had just left a comrade in the heart of enemy territory like that.

" We've got to find her" I said. My emotions were overriding my rational side, I couldn't just leave her.

" Do you have a plan, Yuudai?" Josai asked. " and no charging back in there and searching is not a plan, it's suicide."

He was right. Damnit he was so right I had no way of knowing were I would start looking and even if I did I'd have to slip past the tighten security until I found her.

" I believe we should have faith in Fuuma, after all Josai you said she was nowhere in the immediate area so that would be about a 50 meter radius, Fuuma is a smart girl despite how she acts and also she can use genjutsu to hide her presence, I'm not too concerned" Aoi stated. She had valid points, which kicked my brain back into reality. No point in blowing the whole mission because of a missing comrade.

" I suggest one of us flares our chakra in intervals, so if she hasn't been captured she can find her way back to us" Josai said. I took a seat and rested my back against a tree.

" Ok, Aoi you have the best chakra control out of all of us so you'll have to be our beacon" I said. She nodded and began to flair her chakra and then letting it slowly die out before flaring it again. We waited and by the time night had come I had Aoi stop and we began to pull guard shifts in order to get some sleep. I just hoped wherever she was it wasn't in the hands of the enemy.

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The day of the rendezvous with are informant came and without any form of contact with Fuuma we had given up hope that she had escaped and was hiding out. The hit time was 9 sharp in the forest south west of the village, we had already arrived and were waiting in the shadows of the trees. Right on schedule a cloaked individual came in view.

" What makes the green grass grow?" he asked. A Iwa intel password.

" Blood, bright red blood." I responded and came out of the shadows.

" Good, glad to see you are here, this is what needs to be brought back," he tossed a scroll at me and I caught it. " You'll have an hour head start before they figure out someone has stolen the intel I need to hurry."

" Wait, do you know if a girl was taken in? One with red hair?"

" Come to think of it I did hear of a girl who had no travel papers being arrested, she just was transferred to the village T&I jail,"

Fuck.

" Thanks, I'll let you go," I said. The man took off back in the direction of the village I took a breath and flared my chakra. Josai and Aoi appeared and I tossed the scroll to Josai. " Start moving back, I'm going back for Fuuma."

" Are you stupid!? There is no way you'll be able to get her out we aren't that skilled and-"

" AND WHAT?!" I yelled cutting off Josai mid-sentence. " We wait until we are skilled enough? No I'm going to go get her, so get out of here start making your way back to the village, Aoi your coming with me unless you object." I said.

" I do not, Yuudai-kun I too wish to save Fuuma." Aoi said with convincing voice.

Josai looked at both of us and sighed.

" Alright," he turned away from us. " I'll be waiting at the border until the last day you guys better meet me there."

" Yeah, we'll be there in no time." I assured not knowing who I was trying to to convince more Josai or myself. He then took off leaving Aoi and myself alone, we were about 4 miles outside of Konoha and Aoi wouldn't be able to pinpoint Fuuma chakra signature accurately until we got close to the village walls. We made haste to the village and back to our original infiltration point, Aoi then began scanning for Fuuma's signature.

" I've found her she's below the tower of the Hokage," she said as she opened her eyes. " I can use an illusion genjutsu to mask our visual presence, however we can still be sensed through other means."

" Well," I sighed. " That's gonna have to do, fuck man she owes us big time after this, you ready?" I asked. Aoi smacked her cheeks I guess to calm herself and then nodded. She performed some handsigns, ending in the dragon sign.

"Chameleons cloak," she said, and I felt a release of chakra veil around us. " We can move now." We did just that, scaling the mountainside quickly we were already near our target. Hokage tower was right in front of us and there was only one way to our destination, shinobi were still coming in but most were leaving. We waited after a large group left the tower and then sprinted inside. Aoi was now leading the way as we took the stairs deeper and deeper into the tower, by the time we reach the basement Aoi had dropped the genjutsu to conserve chakra incase of a fight.

" Yuudai-kun, there are two guards in front of Fuuma's cell, I don't sense anyone else."

"Good," I did my handsigns and placed my palm to the earth, " Earth release; earth clone jutsu," a doppelganger of myself formed out of the ground and took off around the corner.

" Hey, what are you doing down here?!"

" Get back here!"

I looked at Aoi waiting for her go ahead.

" They're gone, she's to the right 4th cell," she said, and I was off. I quickly rounded the corner and raced down the corridor. One..Two..Three..FOUR! I counted and did my signs " Earth release; Stone fist jutsu." I said and my right hand became encased in rock. I cocked back and further enhanced my fist with chakra and punched the metal door off it's hinges and into the cell. I ran in to see Fuuma laying on the ground to the right, I moved quickly as I felt my earth clone be destroyed and picked her up bridal style and bolted back to Aoi. I sprinted past her and she was right on my tail, we raced up the stairs and then we heard the alarm. We had seconds now before every shinobi in Konoha would be on our ass. We exited Hokage tower and made a sharp right and rounded back to our entry point. My heart was racing in my chest, and then I heard the deflection of metal and looked back to see four shinobi on our tail, no one I recognized which was good, didn't want to meet anyone one the more skilled people from the show yet and not in this situation. We quickly scaled the mountainside and continued our frantic sprint from our pursuers who were still hot on our trail. We were not gonna lose them like this and I was the one with the best combat skills, but I had an unconscious Fuuma in my arms so fighting was out of the question. Fuck I was at a loss and if we didn't lose these guys quickly I knew the ANBU would be coming next and if they got on our trail… we were done.

We weaved through the trees trying to make them hit moving targets from up above. I was really pushing myself my legs were starting to lose some feeling and my chest began to burn, but the adrenaline that was pumping through my body was making all of that bearable. We finally exited to a part of the forest that was separated by a river and then I had an idea and cut downstream,

Aoi followed and ran up next to me.

" What are you plotting?" She asked as we both avoided kunai chucked at us.

" Do you trust me?" I asked

" With my life,"

" Then just follow me," I said and picked up the pace. After a few more meters I could hear it.

A waterfall.

This was a risk but I knew fighting would be riskier, I looked behind us and they were still on us but they looked fatigued. I looked ahead and steeled myself once we got a few steps away I told Aoi one thing.

" JUMP!" I yelled and took off the edge. I felt something pierce my back and left leg and then I felt gravity grasp my body and began to pull me back to the earth. I wrapped my body around Fuuma's small frame to protect her from the impact. I felt the air and then the water's icy embrace.

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I felt dead but knew that I wasn't my body I could feel it. I slowly came to and immediately scanned for enemy… nothing. I looked down to see Fuuma's messy mop of red hair, good I didn't lose her in the current. I layed her on her back and tilted her head and put my ear near her mouth and watched her chest. I felt her breath tickle my earlobe and she had an even rise and fall in her chest so at least there's that. I looked over and saw Aoi on her side I quickly moved to her and felt the pain pulsed through my leg with every movement. I rolled her on her back and did the same and got the same readings.

Good no one died during my little crazy episode, that's good right? Right?

Then Aoi began to cough and came to.

" Morning," I said. She looked at me and then looked away.

" Next time, let me know when you have a bout of psychosis, so I can prepare myself," she looked at me. " That was insane, Yuudai-kun."

" But did you die though?" I asked in a snarky tone.

"That's besides the point, anyways we should get moving"

She rose shakily and took a moment to regain her bering. I went over to Fuuma and got her on my back and positioned her so she wouldn't slide off. We looked up to see the sun beginning to rise so we knew the direction we needed to take, we made our way out of the ravine and began the long journey home.

A few hours passed and we were nearing the land of Fire's border when I felt Fuuma begin to stir on my back.

"Where…. Am I" she whispered softly.

" On your way home," I said " Glad to see your ok, Fuuma."

" My head hurts so bad, and why am I wet?"

" Long story," I chuckled

" We jumped into a raging waterfall to escape capture after getting you out," Aoi explained.

" Let me guess, Yuudai's idea?"

" You know it" I said proudly and Fuuma slumped on my back. " Did they do anything to you?"

" No, just questioned me why I was in the village without any form of ID, I didn't speak then they said tomorrow,well today, some dude was gonna enter my mind and figure it out, they said something about he was celebrating his daughter's graduation from the academy so that's why he couldn't do it yesterday." She explained.

We dodged a bullet, a 50 caliber one at that. No doubt she was talking about Inoichi Yamanaka, she wouldn't have lasted 10 seconds with him. Well I'm glad we were on our way home, I was planning on dying in my bed. I felt Fuuma tighten her grip on my shoulders.

" What?" I asked. She then wrapped her arms around my neck loosely and spoke in a whisper.

" I know it was your idea to come after me, I thought… you guys had left me, I was scared I really was." she confessed. " So I just wanted to say… Thank you…" She sniffed and I could feel her tears on my back. I smiled and looked ahead.

" Idiot, like I'd leave you there, we're friends I'll always come for you even if it kills me," I said. I repositioned her on my back. " Now be quiet and rest, crybaby"

" Go to hell," she chuckled. I laughed as well.

At the pace we were traveling it would take us about three days to reach the land of Earth's border but I sure once Fuuma could keep us we would be back in the village by then. I guess as far as first missions go it wasn't too exciting but it did have me worried. What if I did get dragged into a fight with a say a jonin or an ANBU would I beat them? Of course not but would I be able to create an opportunity to escape? Right now it's a slim chance and could I rely on that chance? No I couldn't what made it worse was all my notes and I'm sure Aoi's notes did not survive the river. I remember some concepts and a few things that I wanted to try but all in all we got nothing for ourselves out of this mission. Oh well no point in crying over spilled milk, I sure another door will present itself and when it does I'll kick that bitch open.

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A/N: Well aren't you guys loved two chapters in quick succession, why you ask because I had absolutely nothing to do and I felt like writing that's why quit asking ridiculous questions… Kidding ha. I really liked how this came out oh for all of you Dreaming of Sunshine fans I wonder If you can figure out the connection between our stories. I'll give you a hint; chapter 4 which is technically chapter 5. Oh, 1,223 views and 468 visitors I'm humbled by the reception of this story it's better than I thought I would get so Thank You for reading again….. Until next time my friends.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 8

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We made the trip home a quick one after we linked up with Josai at the border of Grass/Fire border, Fuuma was able to keep pace once we got to our borders. We entered the village a bit after nightfall, it had snowed heavily it seemed in the last few days as the snow crunched beneath our feet as we made our way to Tsuchikage tower. We passed villagers who were either just getting off work or closing up shops and were in a hurry to get out of the cold. Not a word was said to us as we passed, sure we got some weird looks because we were so underdressed for the weather however thank kami for chakra that was what was keeping me warm at least. We entered the tower and made our way down into the depths of the building, we quickly said our hello's to the desk chunin and entered through the door to the right. We briskly walked down the hallway until we entered the hall were we received our mission, the cloaked person was still there waiting for us.

"Ah, I see the second group of brats made it," it said with amusement. So I'll assume that it means Jin and his group had made it back well that's good, I did not want to have to deal with the in-fighting that would have ensued should they have died. " Do you have the intel you were sent to receive?"

Josai pulled the scroll out and tossed it to the person who in turn caught it and tucked it away.

" Excellent, congratulations young ones you have passed the selection course and shall from this moment on be known as "San'in" and welcome to the special ops corps," It said with pride. San'in, Mountain shadows huh? Well I could think of worse names so I guess I'll let that one slide. "Now there are somethings that need to be addressed, but I am a very busy person so I'll be taking my leave,"

"Hold on," I said now genuinely confused, " If you're not going to explain things to us then who the hell is?"

" Why, your captain of course, now if you'll excuse me" and in a split moment it was gone. It wasn't body flicker, it wasn't an afterimage left it was like an optical illusion "it" was there and then "it" was gone. Now the next question who was our captain going to be? Again Iwa wasn't talked about at all in the series so this is all new to me. We sat and waited for what seemed like hours before finally hearing footsteps echo through the hall. A voice shot through the silence with power and a hint of endearment.

" Ah, so these are my precious new students huh?"

Wait, I know that voice…

"Akako-obasan?!" I said half in disbelief and half in shock as I stared up to the second floor balcony.

" That's Akako-taicho to you now, Yuudai," she said with a cat-like grin. "Glad to see you make it through selection."

" I never would have guessed," I said still trying to get over my shock.

" Of course, how do you think you okaasan got so skilled? We were in competition with each other in our younger days," she then sighed. " Of course now we have been put into supervising positions, so things aren't as exciting for us anymore, hence why I am now ya'lls squad captain." She finished. She really didn't sound too enthusiastic about this new job of her's. " So let me give you brats your initial briefing, first and foremost you are to never speak to anyone outside the corps about what we do and our dealings in and outside the village. Second you are to at all times obey my orders no matter how crazy they may be, you listen to me and me alone the only person that outranks me is the the old bastard. Third and finally you are to never under any circumstance allow your skills to get rusty or go unimproved, trust me you won't live to regret breaking that rule. Any questions?"

" What will be the role our squad will play for the corps?" Josai asked.

" Good question, we'll mainly be a combat and assassination squad however we could be called upon to fill a variety of roles, you just need to be ready," Akako-obasan moved right in front of us with a body flicker. " For now, you are to go home and prepare for training tomorrow I'd suggest you get plenty of rest because… Well Yuudai knows my training methods well he will fill you in if you are curious." In a flash she was gone leaving us in the empty hall. We went to the desk in the center and picked up our headbands that had collected some dust and fasten them in their appropriate place. We made our way outside and said our goodbyes and went home, I knew tomorrow would be a long day but a fruitful one Akako-obasan's training always taught you something new and if it didn't then you were just being a blind idiot.

I again took to the rooftops seeing as it would be quicker, I just wanted to get home and relax. I entered the Tsu compound and made my way to the branch side of the estate. I snaked through some small homes before getting to mine. The lights were off I guess mother was working late tonight. I slid open the door.

"Tadaima" I said to the empty house.

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The next morning I was awoken a by a sharp shock to the stomach. I instantly coiled in a ball due to the pain. I looked up at the grinning face of my au- I mean captain.

"You awake now? Hurry up and get dressed the others are already at the training grounds, you got 5 minutes." She said and disappeared out of my room. I rolled out of bed and hit the floor still in pain, I got up and dressed myself and was out the door in 2 minutes. I made my way to the eastside of the village were all the training grounds were. I opened my senses when I neared the first training area, I pinpointed their location and made haste. Once they were in sight I could hear my aunt counting my time out. I skidded to a stop right as she said zero.

" Right on the dot, you lucky dog," She said.

" Yuudai, why are you always late?!" Fuuma yelled. " Do I need to come to your house everyday and drag you out of bed?"

" Oh shut-up, I just forgot to set my alarm lay-off would ya," I said. " Plus if you came to my house everyday Keita would get upset and I don't feel like dealing with that."

"Wha- why would he?!" Fuuma said clearly taken aback by my last statement.

" Enough!" Akako exclaimed to get our attention back to her. " You brats can bicker later, right now it's time to sharpen your skills, Let's begin," she pulled out a blindfold and handed it to me, "tie this around your eyes," I did so and the world was black. " So today what we will be working on is fighting with one of your senses impaired, for a regular shinobi this is a skill that is needed over time for special ops it's a must and the enemy's first target to impair you will be your sight. So you need to learn how to not always rely on sight but also on your other senses in a fight. You will be sparring against one another, first up Yuudai and Fuuma."

Oh great I get the one that doesn't know how to hold back as a partner. I already accepted that this was going to be a pain filled spar. I tried to focus my other senses hearing, and smell mostly because they will help me locate her. As far as I could tell she was standing across from me, I could feel her chakra blazing about like a huge flame.

" Ready, begin!"

I took a punch to the jaw, it was quick not a lot of power so I pulled my head backwards and felt the air of her second attack breeze past my face. Then I took a kick to the midsection and was sent rolling I felt every little rock and pebble my skin touched. I heard her quick approach and got back on my feet and retreated back dodging a kick that was aimed for my side, the air whooshed past my forearms and chest. My brain was scrambling and it had no time to process any of the information that it was receiving. Another punch crashed into my cheek causing me to put up a weak guard to ward off her next attack, until I felt my legs get sweeped from under me and I hit the earth.

" Stop" Akako-taicho said. " I couldn't watch that for much longer, take the blindfold off Yuudai,"

I did so and squinted at the light due to my eyes immediate exposure to it. " Ok that was, bad but Yuudai what was the main problem you were having?"

" Not being able to see anything," I said.

" Ugh, besides the obvious jackass,"

" That's it I don't know what else you want me to say." She sighed at that.

" Ok, let me ask this, what was the main problem your brain was having?"

I thought for a second. I wasn't too slow in terms of reaction but there was something about my senses, I was getting more information from them but…

" I didn't know how to use the information from my other senses and create a new "picture" to replace my missing sight?" I asked.

" Correct, see if you actually use your brain for more than just daydreaming you can actually accomplish rational thought." She said in lighthearted tone. " Anyways, yes, see when you have your sight your brain pays that sense the most attention because it is the most direct access your brain has to external information, hence your other senses are dulled just a bit. So we are going to work on sharpening those other senses to help you guys cover blind spots in your vision. If you can avoid attacks blind then you can't be touched when you have your sight."

It was a long training session, and an ugly one too. Akako-obasan found it to be hilarious I mean she got to watch us beat the hell out of each other while one was blind. Of course with each repetition we got we would improve a little more, but we were far from capable of fighting purely without sight. I did however notice that everytime I blinded myself I felt a bit more comfortable and more in tuned with my other senses. We practiced until the sun began to set, and our captain decided to call it quits for the day.

"Good work today everyone, I saw some good improvement from this morning, so how about I get you guys something to eat?" She asked.

" I'm game," Fuuma said instantly.

" Of course you are Fuu-chan," Aoi said " I'll also be attending,"

Me and Josai looked at each other and shrugged. We made our way back into the village and entered what was called "Dinning alley." Bars, restaurants, grilles, and noodle shops as far as the eye could see. A person's nose would be assaulted with smells from all over upon entering the alley. If you like to smell your food before you tasted it then you would be in heaven here. It was expensive to eat out due to the fact that most of the ingredients were imported and the fact the Ko like to line their pockets a bit seeing as they handled most of the importing and distribution of goods to the populace. Which was part of my problem with Ryojin he was at least in my eyes a kid trying to defy is family name and be a shinobi, A rich kid that tries to act hood if you will. None of the other tribes could financially challenge the Ko however what kept them in line were the fact that the other tribes outnumbered them in terms of active shinobi, so to be honest they did right for fear of their lives and I don't blame them one bit.

Since we were being treated we had no say in what we were getting, but I was happy Akako-obasan decided she was craving udon and we entered a small shop and was seated. After placing our orders Akako-obasan began to ask what it is we want out of shinobi life.

" I just want strength, to fight for and protect those who don't have any," Fuuma said.

" Ah, but Fuuma" Akako began " if you become too strong you won't be able to charm yourself a husband later on in life," she finished with a smile. This had Fuuma redder than her hair.

" I-I-I'm not thinking about those kind of things right now taicho!" Fuuma exclaimed " besides I wouldn't fall for a man who was weaker than me anyways, I'd have to babysit him like I do these two," she said as she pointed to Josai and myself. Here we go.

" Oh, you can fuck all the way off you do not babysit us, if anything it's the opposite," Josai said. It didn't take long for our orders to come and thank kami I didn't want to hear those two bicker tonight. I was content with my meal of udon and tempura and ate in silence just listening to the others talk about random topics. One question in particular caught my attention.

" Taicho, where did you get that scar on your jaw from?" Aoi asked. Apparently while I was in my own world Akako had said we were all allowed to ask one question of her. I had wondered that too the scar in question wasn't huge or ugly it looked like one of Naruto's whiskers that was on her right side of her face and started half way from her mouth and ended right underneath her chin.

"Oh, this I got it in the war I was fighting some silver haired ANBU kid from Konoha," she said "next question."

" What is your dream?" Josai asked.

" hmmmm, it's been so long now I forgot," she said. I call bullshit nobody just forgets their dream.

" What is that number tattooed on your hand for?" Fuuma asked.

" Oh this," she said raising her hand a bit so we could see it better it was the character for the number 4. " This is for the group known in the land of Earth as the daimyo's 8 demons, that's the elite shinobi guard that he hires I was ranked 4th in the guard," She explained. " What's your question Yuudai I'm sure you have one."

I continued eating, I was trying to come up with something good.

" Why did you choose the special forces corps?" I asked.

She sat back and put her hand to her chin in thought, had it really been so long she had forgotten? Her eyes then shifted from the ceiling to me.

" So, I could fight the best the shinobi world has to offer," she said simply. " I mean I've fought people from all over, I'll be honest that's what made me such a great shinobi was all the experience I gained in the field. You guys will experience the same growth I did but only if you take your training seriously and work on things by yourself when we are not training as a group."

The rest of dinner went by without much fanfare after that. Akako-obasan told us to do some chakra control exercises and stretch before bed so we wouldn't be sore for tomorrow's training which would be on infiltration and blending in with the populus around us. After she left us we all decided to head back to the training grounds, it was around eight at night judging by the fact the sun set three hours ago, ment in our minds we could get another two hours of skills training before bed.

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Two weeks went by without much happening, I trained with my squad everyday either all day or half a day depending on Akako-obasan's schedule, we were improving everyday. Our teamwork was becoming sharper talking was almost a non-requirement for us when executing battle drills and formations. I can say truly now putting in those extra hours after squad training was worth it. We didn't just stop there the Iwa library was almost a second home for our squad, we spent hours on off days and training half days pouring over the little information us branch members (and Aoi) could get our hands on at our rank, our study group was quite efficient taking down notes and coming up with experimental concepts for jutsu variants and attacks as well as combinations. We spent so much time on our training and sharpening our skills that it wouldn't be usual for Akako-obasan to find us passed out in the corner of the library or curled underneath field blankets in the middle of the training grounds. She would scold us for a bit saying that proper rest is also a part of training and a whole bunch of stuff we wasn't trying to hear, we wanted to, no, NEEDED to become as strong as possible as fast as possible rest be damned to hell as far as we cared. So she dragged us to her home and sat us down to get some answers.

" The hell is wrong with you brats? I've never met a group of kids who rather train all day and night than I don't know enjoy being young, youth doesn't last forever you know?" she asked, no one acknowledged her not out of disrespect but out of the fact she had woken us up and dragged us here half-asleep ( and possibly sleep deprived seeing as we did pull an all-nighter on ninjutsu, blind taijutsu, and throwing drills.) I don't know what more she expected out of us. " You guys look like you're on the verge of keeling over at any moment, what's this all about?"

" Taicho," I started still trying to knock the sleep out of my voice. " You said that we can't let our skills get rusty or go unimproved."

"Tch, don't give me that shit, Yuudai your okaasan asked me the other day was I holding training at 3 am! Because you were getting up in the middle of the night and leaving the house, what the hell?!" She exclaimed " You guys are not leaving until I get some straight answers out of you four!"

We kind of jumped at her yelling not because we were scared it was just our senses were acute now thanks to all the blind fighting, I already tried so it was someone else's turn to offer an excuse.

" We are-" Fuuma started. " We are simply doing what it takes to become great, no, legendary shinobi, this village has shown and taught us from a young age power means everything and those with it make the rules," She paused. " I lost my otou-chan and onee-chan, because I was powerless and I'll be damned if I lose anyone else close to me due to the fact I lacked the power or the skill to stop it." She bit out.

" Taicho," Aoi picked up. " You are our goal as of now, we can tell simply by the few accomplishments you spoke to us about you are an elite shinobi maybe even rivaling the Tsuchikage himself. We want to surpass you no matter what it takes or what price we have to pay,"

Akako-obasan leaned back and gripped the bridge of her nose. " Kami-sama give me strength, still you think that by training yourselves to death you'll surpass me overnight? I've been a shinobi for 21 years, you brats are a 100 years too soon to talk about surpassing me hell you haven't even fought in a war yet," she said

She's right we haven't fought in a war, but that will change after all the 4th great shinobi world war will happen in what? 2 ½? 3 years? Point is we would be fighting in it, should we survive.

" I think there is something deeper motivating you four and I told you your not leaving until I get the answers that I want the truth,"

" Fine taicho," Josai spoke up " We want freedom," he said simply.

"Freedom? From wha- oh," she paused and looked down, then her eyes snapped back to us in an intense glare. " You brats think that you will liberate the branch houses? How foolish can you four be?! There is no way they would cut you down before you guys made one handsign, the last revolt cost us dearly no one wants to relive that too much blood was spilled, and some powerful bloodlines within the branch families were ended all the way down to the children," She stood and intent not killing intent but intent to do harm began to flow off of our captain. " Now, you four heed my words, what ever plot you are conjuring up it dies today, do you understand me?!" she grounded out. We all nodded so as to not anger her any further, she then made the serpent sign. " earth release: stone sealing jutsu."

Before we could move the stone beneath us sprang up and swallowed us up to our necks. Escape was impossible, Akako-obasan sighed.

" Now, you four are gonna stay put until I get back from alerting your parents that you WILL be spending the next two days at my place for "training" and when I get back you will bathe, eat, and go to sleep, got it?" she asked.

" Yes, taicho," we said in unison.

As soon as she left we all passed out guess we really didn't know how tired our bodies and minds really were. I was sure after this our non-squad training would be monitored severely for the next few weeks.

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A/N: So this was a bit of a longer chapter I felt I was too short with the last one. Hey I got some people who said they loved the last two chapters others not so much and that's fine the people who had a problem with it brought up some valid points, that I am taking note of so I do not repeat the same mistake later on, and I thank them because it's going to make me a better writer. I'm hoping no one is shocked by who the squad captain is, I think you guys will really like her character especially when I reveal her skill set. In closing thank you guys for reading as always I hope to return for more…. Until next time my friends.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 9

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I heard yelling, no screaming of men shouting orders to move here and there. I could see the night sky lighting up with explosions of mortars and m155 rounds. I sat behind cover in an alleyway sweat rolling down my face, heart pounding against my breastplate in anticipation of what was to come. Next to me the bolt of a gun chambering a round sounds, I feel my hands performing the action to make the same noise come from my gun. My knees were weak, my gut in knots, fear gnawing at the primal parts of my brain I steel myself for what was to come.

"Start moving! GO!" a voice shouted. I moved and rounded the corner with my weapon raised prepared to do what most wouldn't or couldn't do. Gunshots rang out I could barely hear due to the firing of my own rifle shooting at shadowy figures. I slid behind some cover a large rock pile from a building destroyed and prepared a grenade, a person was next to me firing off rounds in rapid succession. I peeked over my cover and found a target- a group of troops behind some sandbags trying desperately to defend their position. I dropped down and pulled the pin but before I could throw…

" Bogy incoming! Find fucking cov-" A machine gun louder than anything we had on the ground began raining death on us. I dropped my head hoping it would miss my location... It did. I heard the death cries of men being ripped apart by the 30mm chain gun. I look to my right and see someone loading a RPG. I reached for the machine gun he discarded and found my target in the sky and began firing. A blinding flash and deafening sound was heard, the rocket raced towards it's target and made contact causing the chopper to swing wildly. It was heading straight for me, I got up and took cover in the building as the chopper slammed into it.

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I woke up in a sweat which was hard to do in Earth country this time of year. I could feel my heart racing and my breathing was labored. I looked around me to see the others still sound asleep, I searched the area for threats and came up with nothing, just Akako-obasan in the sitting room her chakra was still active so she wasn't asleep yet. I pulled my shirt up to my face and wiped the sweat from my brow, fuck my mind was still in fight or flight mode I couldn't calm down. A night terror from my past life, well should have seen this coming after all I kept my mindframe from my past life as well as all my memories, but my military memories I don't really remember much at least from the war till now. Man I hope I don't have PTSD that's a beast I don't want to wrestle with at all, I watched that disorder take lives, rip families apart, and shake people to their very foundations. Living here in the shinobi world I need all my scruples to survive I do not have time to waste on things that happened in a past life. I picked myself off the ground and walked out the room to go get some water, lord knows my throat was as dry as the desert of Suna. I walked right past the sitting room where my aunt sat with an open scroll on her lap. I said nothing to bother her as I walked into the kitchen grabbed a cup and began to fill it to the brim with cool water. I walked back out with my cup and looked at my aunt who was studying the scroll in front of her.

" Didn't my sister teach you it's impolite to stare at people?" she asked without looking up at me. I took a gulp of water as I walked into the sitting room and sat on the floor.

" I think she did mention it, but I don't think I was paying much attention," I said jokingly.

" Ha, I wish she could have heard that she would chaste you to death,"

" I'm sure but I love her for it, keeps me in line for the most part," I took another sip of my water, " what are you reading?" I asked.

" Nothing that concerns genin I'll tell you that, go back to sleep," She said while waving her hand shooing me away. I wasn't leaving that easily.

" I can't sleep," I said simply, it wasn't a lie. " too much sleep is also bad for the body,"

"Fine, but it still doesn't concern you so leave it be, you'll know when it's time for you to" she said. I really hated that answer adults use to keep information from kids; It's not time for you to know yet, isn't that why Sasuke acted a damn fool on the world because things were kept from his knowledge?

"With all due respect obasan, that's bullshit," I said. She looked at me with a sharp glare but it wasn't one I needed to be concerned about.

" Just because you put 'with all due respect' in front of it doesn't make it any less disrespectful," She said and then sighed. " Fine, it's the report from Kusagakure they have fallen into a civil war, your mother dropped this off to me while you all were knock out in the other room."

Man how long were we out? A day and half?

" Anyways," she continued "I have a sneaking suspicion that we will send some forces to help keep things from getting too out of control."

Well that did make sense, Iwa did a lot of business in Kusa they had food and resources not found here in Earth country. To lose the people who does deals with us to possibly people who will not is a major political concern. I'm sure the Ko's elders are already in talks with the Tsuchikage, telling him to send some form of support to our assets down in Kusa and make it so whoever these rebels are, they don't get their way.

" Do you think we will be sent out?" I asked. Obasan sat in thought for a moment.

"It's a possibility, but only if the scouts can figure out who is behind and leading the revolt, so we have a definitive target to go after, we wouldn't want the rebels to figure out a foreign village was helping the established leadership that would just fuel the already raging fire"

True, anytime you're dealing with people who have it out for the establishment and then they find out an outside source was helping, well God help you should they come into power once they recover from the wounds of war they will be coming for you next.

" I'll make sure to stay ready then," I said as I rose to return the cup, " I'm sure we will be receiving a mission very soon."

" heh, well look at you already deciphering out the true meaning in my words," she laughed. " I've trained you well so far."

" That you have, I'll be heading back to bed," I yawned " night, obasan" I heard a grunt from her and continued to the bedroom.

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It didn't take long before we were standing before the head captain of the special forces to receive a mission. I had a feeling I knew where we were going and for what reason but I kept quiet. The cloaked individual whose identity still eludes me, tossed a scroll to Akako-obasan.

"I'm glad you could come on such short notice, things have become...complicated," it said while folding its arms on the desk.

" How so? Head captain." Akako-obasan asked.

" The situation in Kusagakure has reach a point where we must intervene to protect assets Iwa is invested in. The rebels have taken a number of farms and has shut off numerous supply lines we use in order to receive goods from the region, squad 2 your mission is to retake the farms as well as reopen the trade routes currently occupied by the rebels. Understood?"

" Understood, head captain,"

As we exited the tower there were some questions I wish I could get answers to, unfortunately according to obasan we were not allowed to ask questions during the mission brief. We were given an hour to go home and prep for at minimum a month long mission. I quickly made my way home and began to pack what little I had into the wooden box pack we were issued, ninja wire, a week's worth of clothes, and a few scrolls I was studying for my own enrichment. I made sure I was completely stocked on shuriken and kunai, I dressed myself in a black long sleeved jumpsuit and put my forearm guards on before throwing my red cloak on. I placed my pack on my back (after moving my ponytail into the front to keep it from being caught) and made my way to the front gates. It took me about 4 minutes of walking before I made it to the gates, Josai, Aoi, and Fuuma were already there waiting.

" And Yuudai is last again," Fuuma said looking disappointingly at me. " Will you ever be anywhere on time?"

I sighed, I was late to everything but I just never felt the need to be in a rush.

" I live life by this saying; slow is smooth and smooth is fast," I offered. I felt a slight change in the breeze and felt obasan standing behind me, we had all become quite accustomed to her 'phantom step' as she called it so it never caught us off guard anymore.

" Alright kids, you ready this should be an easy one," She said as she took the lead out of the gates.

" How easy are we talking taicho?" Josai asked. "Is this a C-rank mission?"

" No it's a B-rank seeing as we will have to eliminate the enemy holding on to vital assets and then hold said assets until some Kusa nin arrive to relieve us. This shouldn't take longer than a month." She responded " If we just so happen to stumble upon some evidence leading us to the leader of the revolt then we have been given the green light to put him down, I'm sure you know why?"

" The Ko, they are losing money everyday this war drags on." Aoi said.

" Correct, and as you know if there's one thing the Ko hate more than the Tsu is the loss of profits, they're greedy little bastards."

Well if that's the case why are they sending a special forces squad? I mean the scouts really were more suited for this kind of clear out and hold mission, they had more numbers and could easily overwhelm the enemy in minutes. I guess I'd find out soon enough.

We made the trip to the border in half a day and sat at an Iwa border outpost until nightfall. Once it was pitch dark we crossed the border and made our way to the first farm which was south west of our location. Once we hit about 500 meters from our first objective, obasan halted us and brought us in.

" Alright listen, under no circumstances will you use ninjutsu especially fire based ones we have to preserve the crops that is priority, second no one I mean NO ONE escapes you are to kill all of them, got it?" she asked and we nodded. We dropped our packs and cloaks in that area and split into two teams Aoi and Josai and Fuuma and myself, obasan would go on her own. We split and made the final approach Fuuma and myself would hit the west side Josai and Aoi would hit the east side and Akako-obasan would hit the middle and snag anybody that tries to escape, a typical Iwa pincer formation.

The layout was wide open there was only the main house and what looked like a shed or barn with a supposed greenhouse on the opposite side. The crops were in the direction we had just came from and on the backside of the farm as well. Once we got close enough without being spotted, we took note of the enemy's location and how many that we could see, I'd counted 2 one on the standing near the barn and another on top of it with his back to us. I looked at Fuuma and nodded, we both took off in a burst of chakra and attacked Fuuma took the first one slicing his throat and then catching the body so no sound was heard, I jumped onto the roof and quickly stabbed my target in the throat and twisted the kunai for effect until I felt the body go limp and I slowly laid him down. I felt Josai, Aoi and obasan chakra flair and then subside quickly I looked off to my left to see them standing in front of the farmhouse. It was over that quickly? No extravagant battle for the farm? I must have gotten my hopes up. I looked down at the now dead shinobi he looked maybe a few years older than me, I closed his eyelids and brought his body down with me and placed it on the ground. I walked up to to the rest of the squad to get our next order.

" Great job squad, now," Akako-obasan bit her thumb and did hand signs " summoning jutsu." A small bird appeared and she tied a note to its leg. " Now go." she said and the bird took off. " Now we wait until our relief arrives, before we move to the next one."

I looked out into the fields, and began to ask myself why were these crops so important that we couldn't use ninjutsu. I made my way to the field to get a better look at what was growing here, I saw the giant green pods swaying in the breeze, I must be mistaken but they looked like poppy plants. So this is why they sent us huh?

I cut one of the bulbs and a white milky color began to ooze from the bulb, yeah definitely a poppy plant how do I know? Well let's just say in my old life google was my best friend when i was bored out of my skull. Now I didn't need to ask the obvious I knew why these plants were being grown, opium was a helluva drug and a very addicting one at that and that's what made it a profitable drug to sell. It is so addicting that shinobi in Iwa are never allowed to ingest it so what the hell are these doing on a Ko owned farm? Unless…

I moved towards the barn and opened the door and found dried brown bricks stacked off to the left.

" So, you having fun snooping around?"

I jumped and went to pull out a kunai when a hand stopped me.

" Taicho, please don't do that," I said trying to calm my beating heart. She laughed at that.

" You should never let your guard down even around friends," she said " I guess you've already figured out what's going on?"

" Yeah, so I'm assuming this is how the Ko make a majority of their money?"

" Yep, it's hard to amass the small fortune that they have without dipping your hand into things like this." she responded. It really is with the way the economy works in this world you amass riches in a few ways, one you become a merchant and make good connections and build your profit base, two you start some kind of business that is in dire need in your area, or three you steal it from a dead man, the third one is the one most go for and hire shinobi like us to get it done. As a shinobi you can forget about riches you are the equivalent to a public servant you are there for the people and the feudal lord, so I can see why some shinobi who want riches would go rogue and become bounty hunters.

" I'm not saying I'm against it but why keep this under wraps? I mean there is nothing we can do to them anyways" I saw the other walk over to hear what we were talking about,not that I cared they needed to hear this too.

" Simple, it will damage their image, could you imagine what would happen if it is found out that the Ko tribe are drug peddlers? I mean and if ties with the yakuza were found, well your looking at quite the upheaval are you not?" she asked.

You are in fact you looking at absolute delegitimization from the other tribes who are looking for an excuse to take power away from one another. Politics is a messy game and the players are dirtier than the arena they play in.

"But taicho, why have a small squad do the job of a platoon?" Fuuma asked. Akako-obasan leaned against the barn's frame.

" Another simple question, what was the first rule I told you after you passed selection?"

" We are not to speak to anyone outside of the special forces corps about our dealings in or outside the village" Josai answered.

" Exactly, we are bound to silence were as the other corps are not. We keep secrets and fight in the shadows not just to protect the village but to protect the special interest of the 4 tribes."

What the hell? Protect the special interest?!

" So we are supposed to say nothing about this? These people are- we are risking our lives for someone's pocket book?!" Fuuma yelled. Akako-obasan steeled her gaze at us.

" You knew what you were getting into when you became shinobi of the hidden stone correct? Especially as members of the special forces corps, we don't deal with morality we simply complete the mission given to us without fail if you want to rock the boat then this isn't the place to do that. I understand your frustrations but do not forget what you are here to do." Akako-obasan said and began to move towards the farmhouse.

I huffed and looked at my squadmates, there really wasn't much we could do. I began to walk after obasan.

" Yuudai, you're just going to turn a blind eye to this too?" Fuuma asked. I sighed I really didn't want to go down this road.

" What choice do I have I can't destroy their product, you have to pick your battles here." I said

" So we just act like we didn't see anything?" She asked. I looked her dead in her eyes that burned with a passion to defy whatever I was going to say should she not agree.

" I'm not saying forget what you saw, but I am saying choose the battles that you can win without much of a fight how easier do you think it will be to make the Ko submit with this damning piece of information, a revolution is fought with words and diplomacy before it is fought on the battlefield." I said and walked off.

Well we still had a mission to complete so all of this political garbage could wait until after we were done, after all distractions lead to death and I didn't want none of my comrades to die.

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A/N: Well well so the Ko are drug dealers on the DL huh? Don't worry the other tribes have their own secrets as well. I am also sorry to inform you all that there will not be a chapter update next week but the following week due to my work schedule, but tell me what you think so far I know it's been a slow grind and please bear with me, I want them to be kicking ass too but gotta keep things in the realm of reality. So I hope to hear from you guys…. Until next time my friends.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 10

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The sun began to rise on my guard shift as I stood amongst the poppy plants. The orange hue of daylight clashed with the blue-black of night, the stars twinkled as if they were saying their goodbyes until nightfall. A gust of cold wind blew through my body sending a slight chill down my spine, I hated the cold always had; I rather be hot than cold. I moved out of the fields towards the outer perimeter of the farm to do another check to make sure no one was lingering on the outskirts of my senses. The land of grass is how you would imagine a valley to look, nothing but short and tall grass for miles with the mountains to the north and the forest to the south. As I pushed myself through the tall grass I kept my senses on high alert as my movements were deliberate pausing every so often to feel for or hear any disturbances around me minus the birds singing their morning song or the small animals waking up and beginning to move around.

I made my to the back side of the farm when I felt some chakra signatures closing in from the west where the road leading up to the farm was located. I moved under the cover the tall grass offered and pulled my chakra in to extinguish my presence, I didn't know if this was friendly forces coming to relieve us of our duty here or the enemy coming to take this place back, and until I was sure which one I wasn't going to take unnecessary risks. The signatures closed in not at an urgent pace but still quickly. I got eyes on the road saw the group of 6 running towards the farm. I then pulled back into the grass and began to move to the farmhouse. I entered the house the screen door squealing in protest alerting every one of my arrival. The scene wasn't what I expected, everyone well besides Akako-obasan was up and on alert staring in the direction of the road from their respective sleeping spots.

" Taicho, we have guest," I said turning to her as she leaned on the kitchen counter.

" I'm aware," she responded. " You kids wait here."

She pushed herself off the counter and walked towards me, I moved out of her way so she could pass and the squealing was heard and the sound of wood slamming on wood as she exited. I leaned against the wall and folded my arms still keeping my chakra concealed as was my teammates we didn't want to startle the group should they be hostile, always keep the element of surprise tucked in your back pocket. It was an agonizing wait the tension was palpable our muscles tight ready to react at a moment's notice until Akako walked back in.

" Alright, we are good to grab your things and prepare to leave," she said as she pulled out a map of the area and laid it on the ground. We quickly huddled around the map to get an idea of our next objective. " We will be moving further south to this road," she pointed to the road on the map. " As you can see it leads directly to the many mines in the Land of Earth and they need the supplies and food that comes from here, so we have to take this back so movement can continue, clear? " she asked. We nodded knowing recon would be done upon arrival and went to finish our packing. Once that was complete we made our way out the back door and took off into the sea of grass to our next objective. Moving through the grass was difficult like moving through water there was slight resistance, and seeing where you was going was almost impossible thanks to how high it was.

" Man this sucks, how in the world can anyone live here?" Josai protested somewhere off to my right.

" Some could ask the same of us, after all, we do live in the mountains," Aoi responded.

" Suck it up kiddos, trust me you'll be sent to landscapes worse than this," Akako said. She was not lying either.

Eventually, we exited the tall grass to a landscape more liberating, however, what we saw wasn't a sea of nice pure green but of red and black stained green grass, and bodies lying lifeless on the ground. Kunai, swords and other ninja tools lying next to or around their slain owners. Body parts in every direction you couldn't tell what part belonged to who. The stench of death permeated the air, a few wild dogs along with the vultures were feeding on the corpses trying to get whatever nourishment they could from them. Fuuma puked beside me, I too wanted to but I kept the bile down with sheer willpower. I could see Aoi and Josai trying to do the same it was their first time and well my second of seeing death on this scale. I was quickly reminded and my friends were introduced to the ugly fact that was conflict and war. Akako-obasan kept a strong poker face and began to move slowly through the carnage.

" Are you scared? Or just in shock?" she asked us as she continued ahead of us. " No point in being afraid now it's too late for that."

She was right it was too late… Way too late. I forced my legs to move, one step, then two, three. The others followed slowly behind me treading lightly like you would a minefield walking over bodies and limbs. The flies were relentless descending upon us like we were the dead bodies causing us to swat at the air annoyingly. The smell was absolutely unbearable the scent of rotten eggs and feces, as well as a garlic-like scent, were all mixed together into one vile, stomach-turning concoction.

After what felt like an eternity we exited the bloody graveyard and continued our movement to our objective. We ran to close the distance quickly seeing as it was only 4 miles away from the first farm. Akako lifted two fingers closed and pointed to her right signaling Josai and me to break off for a recon formation. We did so with haste and I began keeping a pace count so we could work our way back to the center of the formation should we need to. We pushed out 250 meters and cut back to our original direction of travel, we tried to keep a low profile seeing as there was absolutely no cover to hide behind while we did this recon and being spotted during a recon was a screw up that we couldn't afford. Once we could see the road we laid down on our stomachs and began our observations.

"I got three shinobi on watch before the checkpoint," Josai said. I looked down to my right and saw another one enemy about 100 meters from the group of three.

" Make that four," I added and pointed in the direction of the shinobi in question. Josai nodded and we slowly crept backed until we were far enough back to stand and run back to the rest of the squad. We hustled and made it back to the others waiting on us and took a knee.

" Report what do you have?" Akako asked looking at Josai and myself.

" We have four shinobi on the southern portion of the road before the checkpoint," I said. " There was nothing else of significance to remember."

Akako then turned to the girls.

" We saw five on our recon all of whom were by the river that runs through the road about 50 meters away from the bridge, they looked like they were off duty seeing as they were participating in games of dice," Aoi said.

" So that makes nine huh?" Akako said. " Plus the two at the checkpoint so that's eleven," She rested her chin on her hand and closed her eyes. We waited for a bit before her eyes snapped open again and gray eyes were upon me. " Yuudai how many smoke bombs do you have?"

I reached into my back pouch and felt around until I felt the small orbs on my fingertips. One, two, three…

" I've got four," I said. A grin appeared on Akako's face.

" Good we're gonna need em', here's the plan…"

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Once in position, we waited for our cue to begin our ambush. I was placed with Fuuma near the river side and we were tasked with taking out the five shinobi there. I began to feel the butterflies in my gut from the anticipation building up, and my hands began to sweat a bit despite the cool breeze passing through occasionally I quickly wiped my hands on the ground next to me and took a few deep breaths to calm my nerves.

" Quit fidgeting over there, you're making me nervous," Fuuma whispered harshly. I looked at her with annoyance and she shot a glare right back with those fierce red eyes.

" Whatever," I muttered softly.

Suddenly a blinding light appeared to our right; the flash pillar jutsu. The light engulfed us keeping us hidden from the enemy. Fuuma moved first charging towards the road I was right behind her. I could see the silhouettes of our targets trying to move away from the light that was robbing them of their sight. Fuuma caught up to one of the stragglers and sliced his back from shoulder to hip, and he let out a scream of pain and she moved past him to continue her assault. The light was beginning to die out so I chucked the smoke bomb into the crowd of shinobi who were still blinded and moved to finish the first shinobi off. I pulled out my kunai and moved quickly to send this shinobi to the other side. I appeared behind him as he was still looking around for his attacker and with surgical precision cut the vital artery on the side of his neck. Blood shot out from the wound and he tried to scream but nothing came but a slight gurgling sound. I moved into the gray smoke to backup Fuuma, but then a strong wind rushed past me almost knocking me off balance the smoke also came flying past me.

A wind jutsu? Damnit.

The light died out behind me leaving me exposed. My brain began flying through scenarios and tactics, suddenly my ears picked up movement behind me and my body took action. I ducked dodging the first attack and twisted my body keeping it low and swept my leg out missing my target. I stopped myself quickly and pushed backward to create some distance needed to analyze the situation further. I felt Fuuma's chakra bouncing around telling me she was on defense as well. My attacker refused to give me more time as he came charging at me to continue the fight however, Fuuma had other plans crashing into him kunai sticking him in the ribcage. No words needed to be exchanged between us and I weaved my signs quickly to time this right.

" Lightning release: lightning bullet."

I aimed right behind Fuuma and shot at nothing a second later a kunoichi appeared behind her readying an attack and then she looked up… Too late. Another enemy down now it was 3 on 2 and that was way more manageable for us but still, no time to celebrate. Two shinobi surrounded me one on my left and one on my right swords raised high and I moved to my right slamming my elbow into the groin of my opponent drawing out a pained grunt and causing him to drop his weapon and I continued to push away from my second attacker. My ears caught the trailing steps behind me and moved my body out of the way of the sword trying to impale me. I turned pulled my kunai out of my leg holster and slashed at his throat and missed as he pulled back out of my reach so I dropped down and went for a leg sweep that he then jumped over.

Mistake on his part.

Fuuma came like a flash and smash her knee into his chin sending him into the river. I then turned my focus back behind me to look for my other attacker who was slowly recovering from my cheap shot earlier, and I could slightly feel the chakra of our last adversary off in the distance moving away from us.

" Fuuma…"

" I know I know I'll go get em'" she said and disappeared heading after our runaway. I returned my attention to the guy on the ground still, man I must have hit him real hard. I began to move towards him as I got closer he began to reach for his weapon. I swiftly reach him and stomped on his hand and used my other foot to slide his sword further away from him. He grabbed my ankle with his other hand and I slashed his forearm damaging the muscles and tendons that controlled his grip causing him to scream as he released me. I then straddled him pinning his arms with my knees and placing the kunai to his throat. He was wild-eyed like a trapped animal all kinds of emotions flashed through his eyes; anger, agony, fear, desperation, but one thing that was absolute was that his life was now in my hands.

" My friend," I started out " don't make this any more agonizing than it has to be let's be civil, tell me who's leading the revolt?" I asked. I didn't get a verbal response he just looked away. " Look, man, I'm trying to save you from the world of…"

Something wet hit my cheek and it began to roll slowly down my face. I wiped my cheek and looked at my hand and saw tiny bubbles in the slime like liquid.

The bastard spits on me…

I quickly grabbed his right arm one hand at his wrist the other at his elbow and began to twist it towards the ground. He began to jerk but he couldn't grab me seeing as I had his other arm still pinned now with my foot. In one fluid motion, I twisted his arm past it rotational limit and heard a sickening but satisfying 'pop'. He screamed and cried I could care less. I went for his other arm and started the exact same process.

" Wait! OK! I'll talk!" He pleaded.

" Oh, You'll talk alright, however," I said and then snapped his other arm in the same fashion. "You should have done that before you decided to spit in my face."

He was kicking and screaming now with two dislocated arms he was no longer a threat so I got up and went to wash my face in the river. I'll let Akako deal with him when she gets here. A little time passed before Fuuma returned and dropped the body she was carrying down and made her way to me.

" What you do to him?" she asked, " he looks like he's in a lot of pain."

" I popped both of his arms out of the shoulder socket he'll be alright."

" Do I even want to know why?" she asked as she took a seat next to me.

" That's for you to decide," I said not wanting to continue the conversation. Good thing Fuuma took the hint despite my composed features I was furious I'm sure murderous intent was flowing off me in waves. Before long the others came to us Josai and Aoi went to get a quick drink from the river while Akako dealt with our prisoner for information. I myself was leaning on Fuuma as she did the same backs to each other trying to rest a bit before we had to move again. The wind was beginning to get cooler now as the sun had passed high noon and was hanging a bit lower than when our battle began. Nature was beginning to lull me to sleep my body began to relax my senses began to dull and block out things my brain deemed useless information. Of course, the peace could only last for so long.

" Alright kids, let's get a move on we've still got work to do and a lot of daylight left," Akako called to us. I was the first to move allowing Fuuma to fall and land on the grass. She was snoring lightly so I shook her awake.

" Fuuma, get up we're heading out," I said.

" Ugh, why?" she groaned.

" Cause we are ninja and we have a mission to complete" I responded blandly. She then rolled over.

" Five more minutes." she said.

I sighed and picked her up like a sack of potatoes and made my way over to the others. I could understand Fuuma's plight, after all, we had pulled guard last night and collectively got maybe 3 and a half hours of sleep. Hell, I was really tired because I had last shift so I'd been up since 3 this morning. I was slowly siphoning off my chakra reserves to keep myself awake and alert. Once in the presence of Akako, she immediately rose an eyebrow at me silently demanding an explanation I then dropped my comrade very ungraciously to the ground drawing a slew of curses from her once she made contact with the earth.

" Damnit, Yuudai! That fucking hurt asshole!" She shouted.

"Should have woken up when I asked the first time," I retorted " Now pay attention taicho has something to put out to us."

Akako looked over all four of us to make sure she had our undivided attention.

" OK listen up we have a name and location of an HVT; his name is Taki and he's a lieutenant for the rebels his location is at our next objective however, he's not expected to be there long so we need to hurry," she said.

" What will be our approach to the situation taicho?" Josai asked

" What do you mean?"

" Are we gonna go in quiet? Or attack head-on or use a diversion?" he clarified.

Akako looked at the sky for a brief moment and then back to Josai.

" That will be determined upon arrival once we can see what we are working with, but I'm sure it won't be a head-on attack security will be tight on top of that," she looked off to the right of her. "Our terrain is about to change into a heavily forested area so we need to keep our senses sharp and watch for traps and ambushes, just because the enemy doesn't know that we are coming doesn't mean they are not prepared."

"Taicho, I am also concerned about the possibility that the informant could have given us false information," Aoi voiced.

Akako sighed at that.

" Yeah well there isn't much we can do about that problem if it is we will deal with it then," Akako said. " Anyone else have any other bitches, gripes, or complaints?" she asked.

" Sure, why are we going after this lieutenant instead of finishing up our objectives?" Fuuma asked.

" Simple, we are going to cut the head from the snake, think about it if we just do our objectives and this war continues we'll be right back here doing exactly what we are doing now. The rebels will fight to take these objectives back and especially the roads and trade routes to cut off supply and help from other nations, on top of that we have already been granted full autonomy to operate how we see fit, our objectives are mere suggestions should we find a better way to achieve our goals well there is nothing stopping us from taking that course of action. We are going to assassinate the rebel leader and end this."

That about sums it up right there and I for one welcomed the new plan, however…

" Taicho what about back-up?" I asked, " It will be quite difficult for just the five of us to take down an entire rebel army no offense but we just aren't skilled enough for that kind of thing."

Akako gave me her patented smirk.

" I'm way ahead of you Yuudai." she said.

I then felt new chakra signatures brush my senses coming from the road they were moving in fast. I tried to discern who they could be were they friends or foes? I keyed one one in particular and knew instantly whose signature it belonged to and began to chuckle.

" You didn't Taicho, them of all people?" I asked.

" Oh kami, not him," Fuuma moaned.

In an instant, five people appeared behind us. I turned fully to see five red cloaked shinobi the wind causing the cloaks to rustle and flap. The one in front removed his hood revealing a face I didn't recognize. His short brown spiked hair was waving in the wind, his face was scarred a bit with the most obvious being the cut that ran from the right side of his nose to his chin that was kind of covered by a five o'clock shadow. His eyes were low from a distance they looked shut completely however you could kinda make out the black eyes that looked like they had seen enough war and horrific things that any light or sparkle of youth was long gone and now what was left was a husk of their former luster.

" Glad you could be of assistance, Yoshi-kun." Akako greeted.

'Yoshi-kun' pulled out a cigarette and lit it. After taking a long drag he turned his attention to Akako.

" Damn woman, how many times have I told you my name is Sadayoshi, not Yoshi-kun," he others removed their hoods to reveal Jin, Keita, Mikoto, and Ryojin. " At least have some respect for me as a peer and not say that shit in front of my subordinates."

" Sorry, sorry it's just been so long since I've seen you, how have you been." She asked.

" We can save the small talk for later, right now we have a job to complete," he shot back.

Akako pouted a bit.

" Man you're no fun, alright fine let's go squad 2 we have a rat to catch," she said walking towards the forest. " Thanks again squad 13 for your assistance."

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A/N: Sorry for my really late update I was in the middle of family visiting me without warning so I had to play host and I couldn't lock myself away in my room to write also I had to car shop and other adult things but I'm back now and hope you all enjoy this new chapter. Like always feel free to review and talk to me I'm always happy to talk to my readers. Oh before I forget I had gotten a review that said I don't paint a picture well and well after rereading my other chapters they were correct so I'm going to try to be more descriptive and improve in that area it's gonna be a slow process but please bear with me I am a novice after all.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 11

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We moved through the forest towards our next objective making sure to keep our signatures wrapped up tight so as to not alert our enemies to our approach. I was moving above the group using the trunks as my platforms for landing and launch. The trees were huge they reminded me of giant redwood trees from my old world. The sun was hanging lower allowing more shadows to be made by the giant trees which asked for more focus from me seeing as I needed to be able to pick-up anything the group might have missed in their sectors. As we began to close in on the farm we I could feel the chakra of not only shinobi but also civilians which was odd at least to me. Only because the last farm was literally deserted minus the shinobi we took out there were no signs of workers tending to the fields or making the product that we found. Once we got 300 meters I saw Akako touch her left eye; the recon sign. I broke formation immediately and continued forward alone. Our group was too large to send more than one for a recon for the reason should I get captured they will only be expecting a team of shinobi so at most four not a platoon of them.

All of Iwa's tactics were like this we were ambush shinobi. For us we are taught if you don't have to fight one-on-one then why would you? Of course, this is a double edge sword because there are a lot of Iwa shinobi who can't fight on their own effectively and trust me fighting effectively alone and defending yourself are two different animals entirely. I decided to stay up in the trees seeing as the forest floor was flat and lacked the high ground I would need to see the entire layout plus locate our HVT which was essential. I jumped to a tree that was just in line with the farm and stuck myself to the backside of the trunk to stay out of sight. I peeked around the trunk and saw children in the fields picking leaves from a green bush and of course, they looked exhausted and underweight for their ages. Now I am not offended or shocked by what I saw because I'll be honest I can't condemn the use of child labor… I mean look at me I'm a child soldier but also in my old life I knew about child labor and slave labor and I knew it took place but because it didn't affect my immediate lifestyle negatively I didn't care. Again I knew I was a terrible person but at least I owned that shit there are some who would lie about the kind of person they are and in my humble opinion those people were the scum of the earth.

I continued my observation and really didn't see much more than a few shinobi monitoring the kids working and making bundles out of the leaves they were picking. I decided to sit and wait until I could say for certain our target wasn't here and we could move on. Time seems to move slow when you are waiting for something to happen, your mind will wander pick-up useless information from senses or play tricks on your eyes and ears; making you think you see or hear something just to get you to re-focus to figure out it was nothing. I decided it was long enough and began to make my way back… then a voice caught my attention.

" Let her go you bully!"

I peeked my head back around the tree and began to analyze the situation. An average size man was holding a girl by her collar like a doll. The girl was crying a river hands fisted trying to either clear the waterworks from her face or at least hold them back. The young boy was punching the man in his thigh which I have to assume it was doing nothing to him with the look of amusement on the man's face.

" Oh, yeah?" he said and then kicked the boy down. "What are you gonna do about it, runt?"

The other men were laughing at the boy's powerlessness knowing there was nothing the boy could do.

" Hey damn it!" A voice of authority rang out causing everyone to freeze hell even I held my breath for a second. Another man emerged from the farmhouse and he looked like he was the head honcho seeing how everyone just dropped what they were doing. He wasn't too tall I'd say around 5'9" and he had a mop of brown hair that covered his eyes. He approached the man holding the kid and then I saw his headband wrapped around his left wrist. I had what I needed our target Taki was here.

" It's not manly to pick on the weak, put the kid down idiot," Taki said in an unimpressed tone.

The man did as he was instructed and then once she was out of the way, I blinked and saw blood and the man's head flying off his shoulders like it was kicked off. I was at a loss my eyes couldn't believe what they just witness I didn't see any movement hell I blinked and his head was separated from his body. Just who was this guy?

" oy! Go dump his body somewhere," he said to another man and he snapped into action lest he be next. He then turned to the kids who were all cowering behind the boy from earlier. " I'm sorry that you innocent ones had to witness something so horrific please excuse my friend's actions towards you all." he then stood and made his way back to the farmhouse. I pushed myself off the tree and hurried back thinking in the back of my mind how dangerous this was going to be. I hit the last tree and dropped in front of everyone.

" About damn time," Fuuma said. " We thought you got lost,"

Me? Lost? Never.

" Fuck you," I shot back.

" Not in your-"

" Enough!" Akako cut-in with authority. " Yuudai, what you got,"

Right, recon.

" Taki he is there along with some kids working the fields, and 6 shinobi minus one, the layout is the same as the last farm but for squad 13 I'll map it out," I pulled out a kunai and began drawing in the dirt. " The farmhouse is located right behind the fields, with a shed off to the left of the house there is a road that cuts through the middle and then forks 200 meters past the area," I drew as I went along marking the key structures I mentioned.

" Why did you say 6 shinobi minus one?" Akako asked.

I gave her a serious look.

" Because he killed one of them, and I didn't even see his hands move, I blinked and he had lobbed the man's head clean off," I said.

" Interesting, well then you kids are gonna hang back for this one,"

I knew why but damn to be dismissed like that it's a little insulting. I mean sure the guy moved faster than I could keep up with visually but still…

" But, taicho-" Fuuma began her complaint.

" I don't want to hear it, you will not under any circumstances aid in this raid," she made eye contact with each one of us. " Understood?"

We all begrudgingly agreed.

" Same goes for you guys as well," Sadayoshi said with finality to his squad.

There was no argument to be had, I mean what could we tell two people that have been shinobi and doing dangerous things for close to half a century between them? No? Ha please, you'd have a better chance of convincing a Uchiha and a Senju not to kill each other and even then that is just as foolish.

" Should we not return here in an hour you are to continue and complete the mission, no coming for us or anything crazy, got me?" Akako asked all of us. All we could do was nod and without another word, they were gone no sound just a slight breeze.

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We waited for what felt like an eternity. The warmth of the sun gave way to the cold embrace of the moon as we sat senses on high alert. I'm sure everyone could sense what was going on during the battle. Hell, we could feel it, the earth shook and trembled with some attacks, the wind would gust past us forcing us to use chakra to stay planted unless we wanted to be blown away. Our discipline was being tested thoroughly it took almost everything I had not to jump in during their fight and even when a new signature that was just as strong as Taki's appeared I literally had to hold Fuuma down just so she wouldn't get herself killed. It was agonizing to be helpless I felt just like how that little boy felt against those shinobi that was messing with him and the girl; afraid, lost, defeated, and angry. I knew we would just be in their way, that we would be more of a burden than help but damn it I wanted to at least be of some help. We sensed the battle die down and I could barely pick up Akako's signature as well as Sadayoshi's. Taki's and the mystery person's chakra was still vibrant, weak but still strong.

It couldn't mean… Did they lose? No impossible. A sudden pain on my wrist snapped me out of my musings and I jerked my hand away from the pain just to see Fuuma like a bolt of lightning head towards the battlefield.

" Fuuma!" Josai yelled and went after her. Aoi soon followed. I stood and just looked off in the direction my friends ran off in.

Do I go after them? Damn it we aren't team 7 from Konoha, we'll be killed we aren't special. This is real not a anime even collectively we are at a disadvantage. Still, I couldn't just let them die I couldn't just do nothing while they went to risk their lives. I felt a raindrop on my skin, then another and soon the sky's dam broke showering me with cold water. I took a step.

" Yuudai, don't be foolish," Jin said to my back. I chuckled at that.

" I try not to be, but I have a foolish teammate who needs my help," I responded. " You guys can stay, I won't ask the future heads to risk their lives for us,"

With that, I took off pushing chakra to my legs to move as fast as I could. It didn't take long before I saw my team standing in front of the two downed captains. They were beaten up pretty bad but they were alive. I skidded to a stop next to Fuuma.

" I swear Fuuma if we live through this…" I started

" I know I know Aoi and Josai already let me have it," she spat.

I looked at the enemy for the first time, Taki was cut up a bit but he was still standing looking at us through his mop of hair that was still covering his eyes. The woman next to him was as tall as Taki, blonde hair damped by the downpour, eyes the color of gray thunder cloud and fierce like one too. She had a long pole that she was using to hold some of her slim body. She had a look of boredom on her face with an added frown.

"Awww, look Taki the little ones have come to save the adults, how sweet," she said mockingly.

"Hn," was Taki's response.

My body was ready to tear away and run at a moment's notice I was not ready for the level of combat I knew was required to take these two down it was intimidating just being in their presence. My body was shaking involuntarily, trembling like a leaf in the wind. I looked at my teammates and they too were trembling.

What the hell did we just get ourselves into?!

" Look at em' they are paralyzed with fear, look kids why don't you just run along and go play ninja somewhere else,"

" We aren't playing ninja, bitch," Fuuma spat back at the woman.

"Hmph she's got a mouth on her, I wonder are you still gonna be able to talk big after I knock some of your teeth down your throat? Taki let kill em',"

Taki turned away.

" I will not fight children, you deal with them how you see fit, Fujiko," he said before he disappeared.

" Tch, holier than thou bastard, fine I won't need his help to take care of these brats,"

There was no running now.

" Hey, guys?" I said.

" What's up, Yuudai?" Josai said

I took a breath to calm myself… nope still shaking, fuck it.

" We need to get our captains out of here, it's 4 on 1," I threw out there.

" Your point?" Fuuma asked.

" Three of us hold her off, while one takes them to safety and we all get out of here," I responded.

Sure was it a solid plan? No absolutely not but would it mean more of us would survive this encounter, yes and that was what I was shooting for.

" Alright, fine who will do it?" Aoi asked.

" Whoever gets the opening, take it and go and don't look back," I said. They nodded.

I didn't plan on being one the people to run I already lived 23 years plus 11 here. They just started living I wanted them to keep living I grown to care for all of them and I didn't want to see any of them die in front of me. I readied myself and charged Fujiko, I felt the other's separate behind me and then put all my focus to my enemy. I took a jab at her which she easily dodged, then a kick and she slipped the high kick and took my plant leg out causing me to topple over. She moved to strike me with her staff, but then Fuuma came flying in with a kick which she stopped at the last second sending her back. I caught myself on my palms behind me and did a backflip to my feet, wasting no time I threw myself back at her Fuuma was just finishing up a combination with a kunai and backed off throwing a few at Fujiko's feet with explosive tags on them.

 _BOOM!_

She came flying upwards out of the smoke, I didn't stop moving towards the smoke as Aoi appeared above Fujiko and slammed her foot down on her head sending her flying back into the smoke. I made my hand signs and stone encased my fist.

" Earth release: Stone fist Jutsu!" I cried.

I made contact with Fujiko sending her out of the smoke like a bullet and into the shed of the farmhouse.

" Someone go NOW!" I yelled and prayed someone heard me. As soon as I turned back around Fujiko smashed me in the side with her pole and I found out the hard way it was made of metal. I was sent flying into a tree, smacking it with a sickening thud. I may have been out for a second or two but I regained my vision well what little I had things were fuzzy and my ears were ringing so I knew I was concussed. I got up slowly and pushed through the pain to rejoin the fight. Josai had erected walls of earth around our enemy to which Aoi was running perpendicular to me both stopped and used the same signs.

" Lightning release: Lightning bullet!"

We both shot a bolt of lightning through the four walls making a cross in the middle.

" Josai get going!" Aoi yelled. He did just that picking up Sadayoshi and taking off. Leaving just Aoi and I left but the main part of the plan was complete I could feel Fuuma's chakra was back around squad 13's and Josai was quickly making his way there as well.

" Aoi, you get going too,"

She looked at me with astonishment.

" Are you insane!? No, I'm not-"

Fujiko appeared right next Aoi pole in mid swing aimed at her head and she wasn't going to be able to dodge. I moved quickly It seemed like the world slowed around me and I teleported from one spot to another.

I just body flickered out of desperation?

I pushed Aoi out the way and the pole crashed into my collarbone snapping it.

I hit the ground in immense pain I couldn't feel anything else but the pulsing pain from the bone that was just snapped. I almost lost consciousness but I fought it off and looked at Aoi.

" Go, run… Please," I pleaded with her. She looked at me and she wanted to defy me to tell me she wasn't leaving but she stood and fled. I sighed well at least I felt at peace knowing everyone got away. I rolled over to look Fujiko- my killer- in the eyes.

" Tch playing the hero huh? And all you're gonna get for your efforts is a grave,"

I chuckled. At this point, I didn't care anymore.

" Well," I gritted out " At least I can say I died with honor this time,"

" What's your name kid?" she asked.

I was puzzled, she beat me why ask for my name? Oh well, whatever I'm about to die anyways.

" Yuudai," I croaked.

" Yuudai huh? I like you kid but," she lifted her pole high above her head. " It's the end of the line good-"

She looked up and then I saw something that resembled small birds race towards her as she backed up. My vision was failing and I was tired the last thing I remembered was the sounds of explosions.

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A/N: Man sorry for the long wait again life has been kicking my ass working plus studying for my promotion test just having enough time to write is hard but here you guys go. Hope you all enjoy and as always I thank you for reading…. Until next time my friends.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 12

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My body felt heavy like I was sitting at the bottom of a pool. I cracked an eye open to see an orange light dancing off the trees; fire? Ok well now I know I'm not alone here. I began the difficult process of sitting up and trying to collect more information about my surroundings. I felt like I was just hit by a semi-truck and my collarbone was still throbbing painfully. I rolled onto my right arm gingerly and used my left arm to push and hold my weight.

" Well, well look who's awake, un,"

I instantly snapped my head up and was staring right into the eyes of Deidara. Yes, I was shocked hell part of me was wholly confused. The hell was he doing here? He defected from the village when I was still in the academy. He wasn't wearing the Akatsuki uniform yet just a plain green gi with his clay pouches strapped to either hip. He had stolen one of the forbidden kinjutsu before bombing the village. As of now he was an A-ranked criminal in the bingo book and had a 500,000 ryo bounty on his head.

" The hell are you doing here Deidara?" I asked while trying to get into a comfortable sitting position.

" I'm working, Kusagakure hired me to help defeat the rebels, un," he said simply. " What is a runt like you doing here, un?"

" Classified," I responded automatically. I wasn't sure if he knew anything about what we were doing here but I was under any obligation to tell him anything he was a criminal after all. He barked out a laugh before turning his gaze up to the sky.

" Man the village must be really hurting for shinobi if they got kids like you in SF, un," he said.

I was growing more uncomfortable by the second why was he just making small talk the Deidara that I remember from the show was an obsessed art lover who wanted nothing to do with anything unless it was artistic in some way. He wasn't a person to care for others let alone save their lives. So why?

" Look let's cut the small talk and get down to the real issue, why did you save me?" I asked as I leveled my gaze at him. He didn't answer right away he just sat there looking into the night sky like the answer would come falling from heaven itself. " Hey, are you listening?" I asked letting my irritation show through my voice. Deidara sighed and then looked at me.

" I owed a debt saving you repaid that debt so now my conscience is clear, un," he said indifferently.

A debt? To who? Man, I really hate not knowing things and a big part of me wanted to interrogate him to get the answers I wanted but that wasn't smart. As frustrating as it was I had to let it go maybe I'd just figure it out later. As of now, the sun was beginning to peek itself over the horizon. I opened my senses to see if I could locate the others.

…. Nope nothing.

Either they were too far away for me to pick up or… No, stop thinking like that they are fine. I hope. I looked back to Deidara who was busy molding clay in his left-hand absent-mindedly. He opened his hand and a small bird took flight and flew above us. I had to admit it was impressive his sculptures were grade-A stuff and I'm sure if he had been born in my world he would have been a world class artist no doubts about it.

" So kid, can you use the explosion release, un?" he asked

I looked at him confused, why ask me that?

" No, not yet at least," I said slowly trying to gauge his reaction. A bit of amusement flashed in his blue eyes.

" I remember when I was your age I was showing everyone how much of a blast art could be, un,"

" Oh yeah? Well, I can't do what you do yet," I snapped.

" I could teach you, un," He offered.

Now that blindsided me. Did he Deidara offer to help me learn the explosion release? A whole bunch of emotions began fighting for dominance inside me. I kept my composure and looked at him and studied his body language for anything to tip me off that he wasn't being genuine. I saw nothing of the sort.

" Why help me any more than you already have? I mean what do you gain from this?" I asked.

" Tch, you think I have an ulterior motive for helping you? I said I'm repaying a debt, un,"

Nice try.

" A debt that you already said has been paid in full when you saved me, this will be a completely new transaction so obviously you are looking to gain something out of the deal, sorry you don't strike me as the charitable type," I said. He began laughing.

" Man, you are sharp kid, you'd make an excellent missing nin one day, un," he complimented " alright there is something I want but as of right now you are unable to pay me but in the future, you will be more than able to pay this debt, un,"

" So basically it's an I.O.U. type deal?"

He nodded. Well, the ball was in my court now. I could say no and still be stuck on how to use the explosion release, but I'd be debt free and wouldn't owe him anything, or I could take him up on his offer and learn from one of the best at using the element. I wouldn't know what it is he would want later but whatever it was I'd be bound to do it for the sake of repaying my debt and I always repay debts. So what will it be Yuudai? I sighed.

" Fine, you got a deal," I said and watched his smirk grow into a grin.

" Great, then let's begin,un,"

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My training wasn't too difficult it was mostly what I would call advanced chakra control drills. So the way he broke the explosion release was like this; chakra was a mass of potential energy and when molded and used in a jutsu it turns into kinetic and when the jutsu is active it stays in a kinetic state. The explosion release works in the reverse so in a sense you are taking the kinetic energy from molding and compressing it you pack it tight so tight that when infused into another object or within yourself it will lay dormant until you shock it with more chakra from the outside. In layman's terms, you are literally using chakra to resemble the last stages of a supermassive star before it blows up. Now, this isn't an easy feat to accomplish especially when you first start out. It takes an extreme amount of focus to compress chakra to that level when molding it and of course I was having problems then taking the compressed chakra and then infusing it into the explosive clay I was given.

I spent days on this problem and couldn't understand for the life of me why when I tried to infuse my chakra into anything it wasn't working. A week had passed and I was still working on the problem, even Deidara didn't have an answer for me as he watched over my training.

" Maybe you should give it up kid, I mean you been at this same step of a week and a half, un,"

No, I couldn't quit when I was so close. I knew that this could add a whole new element to my fighting, this could open up doors for me. I just couldn't quit.

" I'll figure it out I swear maybe there is something I am forgetting or not doing right," I said as I sat and thought. We had been moving around Kusa stopping and resting between Deidara's bombing missions to his credit he could single-handedly wipe out an entire small village no problem. Back to my problem, even though I think I might be doing something wrong I knew I wasn't just by trial and error I knew I wasn't. I would intentionally screw up the process just to get the same outcome as when I do everything exactly the way he taught me. It was infuriating me to no end but I needed to solve this.

Think…think...think….!

An Idea popped into my head.

" Hey Deidara, what if the chakra you compressed needed to be infused inside another jutsu? What if by compressing the chakra so much that it turns from being kinetic and becomes potential?" I asked. He took a bite of fish that we had just caught for dinner.

" Well that would explain why you can't infuse the chakra into an object that would go against the nature of chakra itself, un,"

With that in mind, I again molded and then compressed my chakra. I then did the hand signs for an earth clone and placed my hands on the earth to create the clone. It took less chakra than normal to create said clone but it didn't strike me yet as to why that was. The clone took off and stopped at about 100 meters and then turned to face me. I looked at Deidara who was now chomping and staring at the clone.

" Well, here goes nothing," I said and then stopped. I realized I didn't know how to provide the 'shock' that would cause the chakra to explode. I turned to Deidara. "Hey, how do I initiate the explosion?" I asked.

" It's different for everyone you need a command word," he said simply.

A command word huh? Well, no need to over complicate this. Focused on the chakra of the clone and then-

" Bang!" I cried as I made a half seal with my left hand. The clone was engulfed by a bright light and for a second I felt the air get sucked towards its mass before-

 _KA-BOOM!_

The shockwave of the blast knocked me back it even made Deidara brace himself a bit. Once things settled I looked at the crater that was left behind and was overjoyed with the results. I had the explosion kekkei genkai, it was confirmed now all of the doubt could be washed away. I looked at Deidara who was still looking in the direction of the blast and then looked at me and smirked.

" That blast was the equivalent of one of my C-3 works of art, un," he said.

I smiled at that.

" You know what I think?"

" What's that?"

" Art is a fucking blast, wouldn't you agree Deidara-sensei?"

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A/N: Ok so two chapters in rapid succession because my timeline is so messed up I don't know when I'll be able to update next. I hope to wrap this arc up in like 4-5 chapters. So yes Yuudai has finally learned the explosion release and I hope I didn't confuse anyone with my idea of how the element works if I did feel free to pm me and I'll be more than happy to explain it in further detail also for those of you who didn't catch it in order for Yuudai to use his Kekkei Genkai his chakra must take a physical form first before he can cause the explosion. So that being said love to hear from you guys as always the good the bad and the not so great. As long as I get feedback it helps me improve. Also sorry this chapter is short I will make it up with the next one...

Until next time my friends.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 13

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Deidara left me that night reminding me that I owe him before taking off on his bird made of clay. I really didn't like that I owe something and had no idea what it was, I wasn't regretting my decision and I never do but this just didn't sit right with me. I also had the option to just ignore the debt and cross him later when he comes to collect. So many possibilities not enough time to process them all I crawled out of my makeshift shelter and began to dismantle it. I made sure to scatter the branches and completely erase my being there just like how they taught us in the academy and began the daunting task of finding my squad. The problem was I had no idea where they were and I had no idea where I was, and I needed that information before I could begin the process. I looked up into the pre-dawn sky and searched for the star of navigation; the north star.

Once I found my star I began moving in that direction I figured if I make my way back towards home I can stop at towns along the way and gather information and change direction from there. I began moving at a brisk pace to cover as much ground as I could throughout the day, the woodlands provided enough concealment for me but I still kept my senses on alert just in case, would hate to have cheated death again just to be killed for real do to laziness. I soon lost track of time and before I knew it the sun was sitting right atop the mountains far off in the distance. I still kept moving I would rest when I reached some form of civilization, and off in the corner of my eye, I saw a hut small in size. I slid to a stop and began to search for any present chakra in the area and keyed off one one coming from the hut. I approached carefully so as to not startle whoever it could have been in the hut. I pulled my chakra in so I could further extinguish my presence. I walked past the clothing line they had up and stood at the door.

Knock….knock.

I waited for some time I felt the chakra move to the door and was standing opposite to me only thing separating us was a piece of wood.

" Who is it?"

Oh, what to say?

" A shinobi I was injured and was hoping I could receive treatment for my injuries," I said.

There was a long pause.

" Are you a rebel?"

" No, I am from Kusa," I lied.

" Where is my mother? Is she with you?"

Her mother?

" I'm sorry if she is in the village I wouldn't know I've been on the front lines,"

Finally, the door cracks open and slowly a girl with bright red hair came out. Her hair looks just like Fuuma and her eyes too red just like her hair, she was short as her height stop at my chest. Her face was round and she had a look of innocence obviously not yet touched by the war or corrupted for the sheer gain of another. She didn't make eye contact with me and stuck to looking at the ground off to the side.

" Um… I'm sorry but you seem fine to me," she said softly.

" Oh, well I only broke my collarbonesee, watch," I said and demonstrated painfully that I couldn't lift or move my right arm much. " Please, any help would be greatly appreciated," I said bowing.

I peek and eye up at her and gouged her body language she wasn't relaxed but she was less stiff than before meaning I've gotten my foot in the door now I just need to push a bit more. " If you help me I'm sure I can bring your mother home to you,"

She relaxed more now she was considering well even if she turns me down I can always keep moving, Unfortunately, because I lied I can't ask for directions to Kusagakure, jeez I really need help with my lying.

" Are you lying to me will you bring my mother home to me if I help you?" she asked timidly

I looked up at her and smiled.

" Of course," I lied again

She then motioned for me to follow her into the hut and I did so. The inside was as you would expect a small hut to look like on the inside. A dirt floor, a straw bed, there was what looked to be a large basin used for dishes and such. She then pointed to the bed and I took the hint and had a seat. She kneeled in front of me and offered her arm and I looked at her confused. She looked away embarrassed and nervous eyes flashed to me and then away again.

" I'm sorry, but why are you offering me your arm I don't need yours," I said jokingly

" You have to bite me," she responded

I have to…. Wait…. Only one person.

I looked at her and studied her features again and then it hit me like a ton of bricks. This was Uzumaki Karin! Man, I had completely forgotten she was originally from the land of of course I needed to bite her in order for whatever medical chakra she had to work on my injuries. As weird as it sounded to me at least I needed my right arm back in operation doing one-handed hand seal was cool and all but it was still too much of strain on my reserves to use effectively and over a long period on top of that I knew if I even took one blow to that area it would be so painful that it might paralyze me for a second or two, and in a fight that could be the difference of getting a shallow cut and missing a limb.

I took her wrist as gently as I could so as to not startle her and slowly leaned my head down and bit into her porcelain skin. I felt her forearm muscles tense a bit under my teeth and then relax. Her chakra began to flow into me and quickly made its way to my damaged collarbone and began mending it. First, the pain melted away, then the bone set itself and soon I was feeling back to normal. I didn't know how but I had complete movement of my arm again. She soon retraced her arm and looked at me expectantly.

" I feel great thank you..umm," I said

"Karin," she said filling in the blank.

" Right, Thanks, Karin, now I need to hold up my end-"

There was a hard knock, no more like a bang at the door. Karin visibly jumped at the noise and I instantly opened my senses and felt a signature of chakra outside the door, just one they were alone. I began to stand but she stopped me.

" Just wait here," she said while moving towards the door. She opened the door and stepped out. I pushed chakra to my ears to listen in on the conversation.

" You need to come with me, now," the male voice said.

" Why, where is my mother?"

" She can no longer fulfill her purpose to us and you need to step in, we have allowed you, outsiders, to remain here without recourse it is time you repaid us for our kindness," he said simply.

" Is my mother… Ok?" Karin asked.

" You do not need to worried about that, just come with me!"

" No!"

I couldn't sit idle anymore and busted through the door. The man was quite large and had Karin by the forearm in the process of dragging her wherever he was planning on taking her. We stared each other down for a split moment analyzing each other.

" Who the hell-"

I moved quickly and slammed a kick into his gut drawing a painful grunt from him, and put myself between him and Karin.

" You brat, who are you?"

" A friend of the family," I said. He pulled out a kunai and I readied myself I had no more kunai to use and the rest were in my pack which probably got ransacked and then destroyed by my squad seeing as I am supposed to be deceased. Weapon vs no weapon combat wasn't easy but it was doable for me.

" Kid, I'll give you a chance to walk away with your life, all you have to do is hand over that girl,"

" What will you do with her should I do what you ask?" I shot back.

" She will continue her mother's work in healing the sick and injured with that ability of her's,"

I could feel he was hiding something he was beating around the bush. Saying just enough to keep a normal person's curiosity at bay, but I am far from normal.

" What happened to her mother is she sick herself? Fatigued….? Or is she dead?" I asked. I watched his body tense at the word dead and I had my answer. Humans are extremely easy to read if you know what to look for. His eyes were looking at me but I could tell they were not focused on me rather just above my head. His hands had clenched tightly around the kunai showing the veins and move it in front of himself. His feet which were just in an offensive striking position now had retreated and was in a semi-neutral to a defensive posture. No matter what he said out his mouth next his own body has betrayed him. I then watched his eyes quickly shoot into the right corner of his sockets; another sign that he was formulating a lie the right side of our brains controls things such as imagination, arts, and creativity. Whereas the left controls logic, reasoning, math etc. At this point, I just wanted to hear whatever lie he was going to say I knew the truth already.

" We have too many injured for her to-"

" And the lie detector determined that was a lie, try again," I cut in. " She is dead, isn't she?"

Karin gripped the back of my clothes, I knew this was hard on her but I knew what they were going to make her do and it would push her into the hands of Orochimaru. She didn't deserve that she should be allowed to choose her own path no matter what that path may be. I thought about the timeline and how I could possibly be tampering with it and the problems it could create down the road, but then again I'm here and I'm not supposed to be so just by me being born and living had already tampered with the flow of time and screwed some things up. Why not mess with it some more? I kept my attention on my enemy's form awaiting his answer.

" Heh, you must be extremely skilled at reading people kid, which tells me you are no ordinary child," he said. " You are correct that woman has passed away,"

I felt Karin's hand release me and she collapsed to the ground sobbing.

" … Your…. Lying… It's not true!" she cried

" Oh but it is and you need to continue where she left off otherwise more people will die," he said coldly. I looked at Karin on her knees sobbing uncontrollably for the loss of her mother and I had sympathy for her. I could understand to an extent what it was she was feeling I know all too well what it is like to lose a loved one. I turned and placed my hand on her head and rubbed it softly. I didn't say anything because there was nothing I could say to erase the pain she was feeling.

" So, you do realize that I won't be handing her over to you, right?" I asked.

" Tch, oh yeah and what's a kid like you gonna do to stop me?" he asked.

I turned and faced him, I hated how he underestimated me simply because I was a kid. I cracked my neck and looked over my shoulder at Karin who was staring at me with tear filled eyes.

" Karin, look away," I said and made the first move. I used a body flicker to get within striking range but my opponent was fast and jabbed his kunai right at my skull. I tilted my head right to avoid the death shot the knife cutting strands of my hair and just missing my ear. I then stepped inside his guard and grabbed his wrist with my left hand to keep his arm locked out and then slammed my right palm up into his elbow while pulling his wrist down effectively dislocating the joint. He dropped the kunai and took another swing at my head which I ducked under and picked up the kunai he dropped and put it towards his jugular. I made a half seal with my other hand creating an earth clone that grabbed his only good arm and he was caught.

" You know you really shouldn't go assuming someone's skill based on their age, after all, I'm just a kid and I have you completely at my mercy, now that clone that has your arm I can make explode and It would kill you in an instant," I said.

" Oh yeah you would just kill yourself too,"

I scoffed at his statement. Did he really believe I would not have planned ahead?

I walked out from behind a tree and touched Karin on the shoulder, she looked at me with shock the shinobi also was looking at me dumbfounded.

" How?! When did you even have the chance?!" he asked confused. I just shrugged my shoulders.

" It's actually quite simple, I had replaced myself with an earth clone before I confronted you, us stone shinobi are quite hard to keep track of when our element is all around us," I explained. "I'm actually shocked you didn't notice it do you even remember there being two chakra signatures when you first approached?"

My answer was written all over his face. He was stunned a mix between dumbfoundedness and shock. I bet it's hard to comprehend that you an adult was just outsmarted and outclassed by a kid. I held my hand out to Karin who took it and I pulled her to her feet.

"You underestimated me, and you will pay for that mistake with your life," I said coldly. I tuned Karin away and made my half seal. " Bang,". Both clones emitted a bright light before exploding killing the man within the explosion. I picked Karin up bridal style and began to move in my original direction of travel.

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By nightfall, we had reached the outskirts of a small village and I made camp there. I began the fire and I sat there looking at her. She had a sad look on her face I could see the emotions flashing through her eyes as the fire's light reflected off of them.

"So, what are you going to do with me?" she asked quietly.

" I'm not doing anything with you, you are free to choose what you want to do," I responded. "It's your life after all,"

"Even though you know what I can do?"

"What heal people? Ok and? That doesn't give me the right to decide your path you can do what you want,"

"I can't believe those words, you've already lied to me before," she countered.

"Yeah, I know but you should have known that I'm a pretty terrible liar, plus I didn't know your loyalties and on top of that I'm a foreign ninja so I need to protect myself as well," I said. "Take it how you want I don't feel sorry for what I did,"

" I see, what are you planning on doing?" she asked.

I looked up into the night sky and watched the stars shimmer against the blue-black night sky.

" I need to find my squad, we… got separated and I need to find them, they think I'm dead but obviously, that is false, and also there is his girl who looks a lot like you that I need to keep out of trouble," I said with a bit of a laugh at the end. Karin still had a future and I wanted her to see that this wasn't the end. "Hey, look," I said and pointed. A star streaked across the night sky, then another… and another. Soon the whole sky was being peppered with white streak after white streak. I looked at Karin and she was mesmerized by the display.

"Hey, what if I said I'd like to stick around with you?" she asked.

"If that's what you want," I laid down. " I won't stop you, however, I don't know if my captain will approve of it," I said.

" I can help find your friends," she said with certainty.

"Oh, how so?" I asked.

"I really good at discerning individual chakra signatures,"

"Well, that can come in handy, alright do you mind lending me your assistance, Karin?" I asked.

"Yeah sure…um?"

"Oh, how rude of me, names Yuudai," I said with a smile.

She returned it.

"Pleasure to meet you Yuudai,"

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A/N: Okay I was gone for a minute but I'm back now so sit the f*ck back down lol. Hey everyone sorry for the long wait but again work has been a killer and my hours are all out of whack but here you go, I hope everyone is enjoying this story as much as I enjoy writing it don't worry I still plan on finishing this arc up soon but it might not be in the 5 chapter range like I wanted because of Karin's entrance into the story… oh well but like always thank you for reading, please leave feedback so I can improve this story and my writing… Until next time my friends.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 14

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I felt a slight nudging to my shoulder and shot up out of my sleep in battle mode ready to kill whatever threat there was. I turned to Karin who had reeled back because of my sudden movements. I studied her and then our surroundings and concluded that there was no threat and relaxed.

" Sorry," I apologized.

" It's fine I just wanted to let you know it's morning and we should get going," she responded.

I looked up into the glare of the sun and squinted, yep it was morning alright and judging by the sun's position it was late morning meaning I've overslept… as per usual. I could hear Fuuma's voice in the back of my head scolding me for being late again. I cracked a smile at the quick memory and then stood up and stretched the rest of the sleep out of my muscles. Today would be a fruitful one because I get to gather intel and it wasn't as hard as you would think. Iwa teachings were… outdated to say the least, a lot of bribery tactics and brute force tactics and no that didn't mean beat said person until they told you what you wanted, well not always it could mean kidnapping, extortion, threatening etc. My tactics were a bit more subtle and required less physical work on my end, and I was in the best place to use these tactics. I walked over to the edge of the cliff we made camp on and looked down onto the village below that I knew had a treasure trove of information and unsuspecting informants.

" Karin, do you know how to use ninjutsu?" I asked. She shook her head. Damn, that would be of some help, oh well.

I did a hand sign and in a poof of smoke, I had transformed into the grass shinobi I had killed yesterday. Karin froze for a second before I gave her a smile.

"It's just me, this is a transformation jutsu," I said and jumped off the cliff. Once I landed I motioned for Karin to jump.

"Are you insane?" she asked.

"Yes, yes I am," I said. " Don't worry I'll catch you... Maybe," I shot her a smirk.

"Maybe?! No, I'll stay here then," she said and crossed her arms as to signal the end of the conversation.

Ugh, why are the Uzumaki girls so difficult. I climbed back up the cliff and grabbed Karin pulling her off the cliff. She screamed bloody murder in my ear but I grabbed hold of her and landed safely. She was panting when I put her down holding on to her chest, I'm sure her heart rate was through the roof. She did not look too happy with me either.

"Asshole," she spat.

"I know I'm working on it," I shot back. " Let's get moving,"

I began moving towards the town and Karin followed close behind. Once we reached the entrance of the medium sized village I began to push chakra to my ears to pick up on conversations others were having. The streets were busy farmers were pulling their carts to and fro, trying to make a living. Merchants were also busy trying to attract customers for their wares as well. The kids were running around playing what I assumed to be tag and joyously laughing at one another. Judging by this scene you probably wouldn't have guessed that a civil war was raging just outside theses walls. Either we are too far away from the conflict or the sides opposing each other have tried their hardest to keep civilians out of the conflict. Which isn't too hard however it is too easy to drag the innocent into a war. As we walked we got sideways glances from the town folk, I'm sure they are on edge because of my appearance wearing a headband makes people's heads turn. I looked around quickly and found a bar and made my way into the establishment. As I entered heads turned, some stared others shot dirty looks and glares. I felt Karin close to my left and pushed her in front of me. The wood creaked as we walked towards the counter. The conversations in the bar picked back up as we took our seats. The place was dark, muggy, and damp there were a lot of shadows and in the corners, it was pitch black. I kept all my senses on high alert to catch any form of killing intent. I waved the bartender over.

"Small bottle of sake, water for the girl," I said quickly.

"At this bar, you pay upfront for your drinks," he said.

" Why?" I asked

"Because I'm never sure if you shinobi will live long enough to pay me,"

That seemed fair, however…

" I don't like that rule, so how about this," I pulled out six gold coins worth about 2,000 ryo. I placed them on the counter. " I give you this if you can answer a few of my questions as well as give me drinks on the house?"

The bartender's eyes widen before he smirked and nodded.

" Now I'm looking for a group of shinobi they have been giving the rebels hell recently and I've been hired to track them down," I said. The bartender set the bottle of sake and glass of water down in front of us. " I was wondering have you heard anything about them?"

"Hmmm, now that you mention it I have heard some rumors about that, rebels come in here all the time,"

"What have they said? anything on a location?"

" Not an exact one, no, however, I heard a lot of em' are getting moved west away from the shinobi village, guess that group you are looking for has been meddling around there," he concluded.

" Are the rebels based out west?" I asked and took a drink. The liquid burned a bit on the way down and heated my gut once it settled. Man, I missed alcohol but I knew I couldn't drink much of it this body wasn't seasoned enough for the level of drinking I'm used to.

" That I am not sure," he said and began to clean the counter with a rag. Well, that was vague, fruitful but still vague. So I could go west and hope I find them screwing around with the rebels or sit here and collect more info… Option two it is.

I felt a tug on my shirt and looked at Karin. She pointed to the door and held up four fingers. I didn't quite get it until four men burst through the door in a rowdy and loud fashion. They had headbands from the hidden grass but both sides of the war did, but theirs had green cloth instead of black. They made their way up to the counter and began to order their drinks. I continued to drink my sake restraining myself to stop from drinking too much. They began having conversations about some of the women they have bed recently to how their leader isn't much of one at all. I continued to listen for any information I was looking for and before long I got what I was looking for.

" Hey, You hear about those seven shinobi who has been taking back the farms?" one asked.

" Yeah, Bunta-sama has been pissed about that, those drug farms were netting us some cash I can see why," another responded.

So they were all drug farms, huh. Well, the Ko are some shady bastards so it doesn't surprise me.

" But we are receiving funding from that rich tribe in the land of Earth… What was their name again?"

"The Ko tribe?"

" Yeah, yeah, that's them,"

Ok hold up, did I just hear that right? The Ko are funding both sides of the conflict? They have to be because we as a village began sending financial aid here months ago when the war first kicked off. Those bastards are indirectly killing people for profit?! At this rate, the land of Grass will financially belong to the land of Earth and directly answer to the Ko. I took another drink, man, why was I born into this mess? I bet the land of waves wouldn't have been as bad as this why couldn't I have been born there or Konoha? Hell, I would have been happy with Suna too.

"What about those shinobi that have been fucking shit up out west? They are getting too close to our operations we've jumped headquarters too many times in the last week, the body doubles are only going to fool them for only so long before they backtrack east," the last one said.

My ears twitched.

"I'm sure Bunta-sama has a plan for them we just need to be ready to take em' out," he said as he finished his drink. "Bartender another round!" he hollered.

So they are moving west well I'm glad I have an idea of their general location. Now I just need a map. I rose and tapped Karin so she could follow me. Once we exited I squinted so my eyes could adjust to the change of light. We made our way back to the market in look for the item we needed as well as a weapon I could carry seeing as I had no kunai or shuriken at all. I could use a katana Akako and my mother did teach me a bit of kenjutsu but I wasn't comfortable enough with a blade yet to use in combat. A dagger would be much more ideal for me, I am used to using kunai in my taijutsu so a tanto would suffice for now.

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After gathering our supplies we exitedthe the village and I dropped my transformation jutsu.

"Now what?" Karin asked.

" Now we head west and try and find my squad, I'm sure they are out there if what those guys said back there was true then my friends are hunting down the leader of the rebellion," I said. Which didn't deviate from the plan Akako came up with before we were separated. They just continued the mission like they were supposed to. I pulled out my new weapon and examined it further. It was well made the wood was polished and smooth, I pulled the blade from its sheath and admired the metal work. This was a much better blade than what the merchant was leading on and I got it for only 700 ryo I call that a steal. I put my tanto away and looked at Karin.

"It's gonna get really dangerous from here on out, I cannot and will not guarantee your safety," I said calmly. She looked conflicted for a moment and then adjusted her glasses.

"I'm well aware but I have nowhere else to go, and I feel like following you will be my best bet at survival,"

I turned away from her and knelt down.

"Suit yourself but don't go cursing me from the afterlife if you happen to die, I don't like dealing with malicious spirits," I said. "Now, hop on we are gonna move at my pace,"

She did so and I adjusted her weight on my back.

"You'd better watch where you put your hands too," she said next to my ear. I scoffed, the nerve of her.

" Oh please, you're about as desirable as my teammate Fuuma," I said and took off. We moved west covering ground quickly. Even as night began to fall I wasn't slowing down, I hadn't processed how much danger I'd been in these last two weeks. I was a lone shinobi separated from his squad, behind enemy lines under armed, and to cap it all off I had a basic ninjutsu repertoire. Either I was lucky or God didn't want me in his afterlife again. As I moved through the grasslands I began to pick up a huge mass of chakra moving towards me.

"Yuudai, twenty shinobi are heading this way," Karin said. I hit the brakes and looked for a place to hide… Nothing. Damn the land of Grass how can anyone be a shinobi from here and know anything about stealth? I took off to my left and began kicking it into overdrive, I looked off to my right to see said group of shinobi moving in a protective formation. Some off in the back pulled away from the formation and stopped waiting for something.

"Yuudai, there are a few more signatures coming,"

"How many?" I asked having halted from my running.

"Five,"

I then saw figures off in the distance heading for the shinobi that had broken ranks. A massive fire jutsu was let loose upon the poor bastards and I instantly knew who it was.

"Geez Fuuma, reckless as always," I said and then began to sprint after the formation of shinobi who had just passed. If I was correct then Sadayoshi and Akako would be in front of their formation ready to intercept them. Well, then I know exactly what I needed to do. " Yo Karin, wrap your legs around my waist and hang on for dear life," I said. Once my hands were free I made my signs and slapped my hands to the earth. " Earth release: Swamp pit!" I yelled. The earth sunk along with a few of the shinobi, however, some did escape my jutsu. I quickly weaved the signs for my next jutsu. " Earth release: Deep encasement jutsu," I said. The earth erected itself and moved over top of the swamp I created making a roof over top, I slapped my hands together to finish the sequence of jutsu, " Bang," I said.

The entire ground shook with the explosion that ensued, kicking up dust, rocks and other debris. I was knocked back by the back pressure and twisted my body so Karin would be on top when we landed. We hit the ground and skidded a few feet before coming to a stop my ears were ringing a bit and I hit the ground face first but nothing felt broken so all in all I was fine.

"You alright, Karin?" I asked.

"I'm fine just shaken up, you really are insane," she said.

She got off my back allowing me to get up. I dusted myself off, I felt the other's approach our position carefully.

"Don't move, Karin if they see you as a threat they will kill you before you can blink," I said. As soon as the words left my mouth Aoi had appeared behind Karin kunai at her throat ready to kill her.

" Don't move," Fuuma said while putting the kunai to my pulse.

"Geez, I always knew you would be the death of me… Fuuma," I said jokingly. I looked over my shoulder at her to see those red eyes widen. "It's been a while," She pressed the kunai into my skin.

"Nice try, you're not fooling me my comrade died already… I killed him, so drop whatever jutsu you are using," She said coldly.

I looked over to Aoi and she too looked at me with cold eyes, man fuck they really don't believe it's me.

"Ok, Fuuma give me one chance for me to prove I am who I say I am," I said. It was quiet for a moment and then the kunai left my throat.

"One chance," she said.

The others had shown up at this point and were also weary of my presence. I can kind of understand their caution. In a world where transformation and genjutsu exist one would be a fool to believe what their eyes see 100%. I took a breath and turned to Fuuma, I needed something intimate something I would say or do that would let them know it was me. I racked my brain a bit and it came to me. I walked up to her and looked her dead in her eyes.

"What, you're testing my patience," she said.

"Geez, even after not seeing you for two weeks, you still haven't grown one inch," I said as I passed my hand over her head. That had visibly pissed her off and she lunged at me, I moved quickly dodging her attack and grabbed her wrist while simultaneously pulling my tanto out and put it right at her ribcage. We stood there for a second time frozen in that moment.

"You still suck at countering too," I said.

"How are you alive?" she asked. I chuckled how indeed.

"Because, Kami-sama doesn't want me dead yet I suppose," I said. I looked over at Aoi. "I'd greatly appreciate if you let my friend over there go Aoi,"

She did so and Karin dropped to the ground. Fuuma had backed off of me now the atmosphere changed from tense and hostile to calm and easy.

"Hey guys let's save the reunion for after we get our target," Josai said and continued moving in their original direction of travel. Everyone took off after him and I went and lifted Karin on my back and ran after them. We closed in on two lone chakra signatures which I assumed to belong to Akako and Sadayoshi. Once we could see them I also saw the carnage they had inflicted upon the enemy. No one was left alive and they were standing over one particular, I'm guessing they were chasing 'Bunta' and it wasn't him. Everyone came to a halt in front of the two captains.

"Ah, you kids-" Akako froze when she saw me. " Yuudai?"

I flash her a smile.

"In the flesh," I said. I let Karin down and promptly received and punch right on top of my head. "Ow, what the fuck was that for!" I yelled.

"For being an idiot! You disobeyed a direct order Yuudai and we thought you had died, hell Fuuma didn't eat for a week because she was beating herself up about it," she said. I rubbed my head trying to get the pain to stop to no avail. I wasn't going to argue she had a point we did disobey her and I deserve everything she wanted to do to me I'm sure the others got much worse.

"I understand, and will accept any punishment you deem necessary," I said with my head bowed.

She picked my head up with her hand and pulled me in for a hug.

"You idiot, I'll deal with you when we get back," She said.

"Roger that taicho,"

"I hate to break up such a touching moment but we still have a problem to deal with," Sadayoshi said with a lit cigarette in his mouth.

"Right this is the fourth body double of Bunta we have killed, we are beginning to lose his trail," Jin said.

"That's because Bunta has moved east," I said.

"Oh, and how the fuck do you know huh?" Ryojin spat.

"Well I overheard some rebels talking about it while they were getting drunk," I said simply. "As you know liquor is a truth serum,"

"Are you sure Yuudai," Akako asked.

"Positive, however, I don't have an exact location where," I said.

"Then that just means tomorrow we start working our way back east, If what Yuudai says is true then we are days behind them," Sadayoshi said and flicked the butt away.

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The camp was made in the open which went against all our standards but there was nowhere else to set up. I was sitting with Karin and my squad, they were informing me of information that I missed out on. Things in the land of Grass were on fire to put it plainly after the rebels lost on the eastern and northern front thanks to us they began to do more desperate things like attacking Kusagakure head on. Both sides took heavy casualties and Kusa's leader was gravely injured and their army was now crippled. So our mission had gone from taking back farms and trade routes to assassination, a B-ranked mission just turned into an A-ranked one just like that. Still, what are these rebels fighting for? What is their motivation? People don't just lay down their lives for nothing. Again so many questions, not enough answers.

Fuuma had been staring at Karin for some time almost like she was trying to figure her out. Karin had noticed and was trying her best to ignore her and both were so stubborn neither one of them would be the first to say anything to each other. I sighed.

"Children," I muttered, "Fuuma didn't your mother ever teach you it's impolite to stare?"

"Who are you," Fuuma asked Karin. "You look a lot like my older sister when she was younger,"

"Well, I don't know how to take that, I will agree that you and I do look alike," Karin responded.

"Alike? More like twins," Josai said laughing. "Yuudai you dog, you been out picking up girls instead of doing your job where did you find a beauty like her? She got a boyfriend?"

Aoi quickly smacked Josai upside the head.

"Ow, Aoi what was that for?"

"For being an ass," she quipped. I laughed I missed these guys so much, as much that was weighing on my mind these guys just have a knack for making me forget about my worries and just live in the moment with them. Sure did I want to talk about the Ko and their meddling here yes but what would have been done about it? Plus it was based hearsay, nothing to back it up no documents, no paper trail, not even an insider informant testimony. Nothing would have been done and I'm sure when we get back our debriefing will be very extensive to see how much we know and if we need to be silenced permanently for that knowledge. I am starting to believe that my days as a hidden stone shinobi are numbered. I don't know when or what will trigger it but I'll be in the bingo book for all the wrong reasons of no fault of my own other than I knew too much and became too strong to control. A wise man once said 'the powerful fear power that they do not control'. For now, enjoy this time Yuudai because it won't last forever.

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A/N: Yes another one down, tell me what you guys think and as always thank you for reading... Until next time my friends.


	16. Chapter 16

A\N: Hey everyone, I just wanted to apologize for the wait I had a bad case of writer's block… so without further delay.

Chapter 15

I woke out my sleep in the middle of the night shivering quite a bit seeing as the temperature had dropped since early evening. Now more than ever I was wishing I had my cloak or something to cover myself but as I suspected all my gear was destroyed by my squad to prevent things getting traced back to Iwagakure, which I understood but still at least leave my field blanket or cloak so I'm not freezing my butt off. I sat up and began to regulate my chakra so my body temperature could rise and stop my shivering. I looked around me and everyone was asleep, well almost everyone. I could feel Sadayoshi's chakra was still in an active state geuss he was pulling guard this time around. I rose to my feet and stretched the sleep from my limbs and began to move I good distance away from the group so I could get a bit a training in, after all why waste time trying to fall back asleep when I could get closer to perfecting my skills.

I began my warm-up exercises and stretches my mom taught me as a child starting from my feet and working my way up my entire body making sure to keep my breathing even. Once I completed my warm-ups I fluidly flowed into Iwa's hand-to-hand combat kata. I imagined an enemy in front of me and would block,evade, and disarm that imaginary foe I would imagine multiple enemies at once and work on my crowd control making sure in my head that I never lost track of each foe and went for killing blows on each. After that I took a break and began to catch my breath, I sat down and looked up into the night sky.

" What do you want, Fuuma?" I asked without turning to look to see if I was correct. I knew it was her. I heard the footsteps get closer until she was standing next to me looking up at the same sky.

"Nothing, I just wanted to make sure you were ok," she said.

"I'm not going to disappear again," I said lightly. "Its going to take a lot more than that to take me out,"

She promptly smacked the side of my head. "Ow, the hell not you t-"

"This isn't a game Yuudai!" she cut in. "I thought I had gotten you killed, I thought that I would have to go to your mother and beg for her forgiveness for putting you in that situation,"

"Tch, she would have understood we are shinobi and not just shinobi but Iwa special forces shinobi, people don't live long in our field of work," I said dismissively.

"But still-"

"I've already accepted my lot in life, I probably won't die a peaceful death, more than likely won't reach the age where I could marry and have kids of my own, and I'm fine with that," I said. " I want you too stop beating yourself up about what happened we had a plan and the plan got executed it's just one of us didn't come back, that will happen it happens everyday, we have to accept that fact,"

I looked at her and saw that same look of defiance in her eyes that she always had.

"I refuse to accept that as fact, sometimes Yuudai I hate that about you, your always about the facts and what is possible and what isn't, you never take a chance everything is not set in stone," she said.

She was right I couldn't disagree with her and to do so would be foolish. She's right everything is not set in stone things can change, and courses can turn around, but will it be for better or for worse? I sighed.

"And? Your point is?" I asked.

"Idiot, My point is to stop already assuming the outcomes of battles before they have even begun, we could have beaten that bitch had we had worked together as team,"

"Your nuts! She was way more powerful than all of us we didn't stand a chance at all, she was toying with us like it was a game to her," I exclaimed in disbelief. I couldn't fathom what she was saying I remember that fear I felt how absolutely terrified I was during that whole fight I was like a mouse scurrying away from a hungry cat. I wasn't close to as effective as I should have been that day.

"Are you sure it wasn't just us being scared?" she asked with a knowing look. "I mean sure we are shinobi, and yes we are trained killers but how many times before that point did we actually fight in a true life or death battle? The others before that don't count because Akako-Taicho was there to keep things from getting too dangerous for us, that was the first time we were on our own, was it not?"

That was true. So true I began to bite the inside of my cheek so it was fear that did us in? There's only one way to rid yourself of that; experience. Something all young shinobi lack I don't care how talented that person may be how high the ceiling is on their potential sometimes it just comes down to that one word. It is something you gain over time, and we didn't have that luxury we pick a path that would thrust us into the lion's den and we had to bust our asses just so we could survive, not thrive that would come much later down the road should we make it that far.

"So what can we do about that? It's not like we can simulate that kind of primal fear over again with each other we know one another too well," I said as I stood. "It's pointless,"

Now it was Fuuma's turn to kiss her teeth.

"Of course we can't do that with each other, but taicho can," she responded.

"Absolutely not! Shes a Jonin an elite of the elite are you insane?!" I asked furiously "If taicho fought us seriously and trust me I highly doubt she would even entertain the idea, she would kill us before we could blink,"

"So what, you scared now too? Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't it you that told our whole platoon back at the academy that we have control of our lives now and what we could achieve? Wasn't it you that wanted to become as strong as you could so you could oppose the system that we live under?! Are you telling me that really deep down inside behind all that leadership and confidence of yours lies cowardice?"

That stung. The truth was I wasn't scared, I was petrified of having to fight that woman or someone on the same level I just didn't feel ready I didn't have any techniques that could tip the tide in my favor in a battle like that. All the fights up to that point was like training; my body reacted as it was trained to do but I had my aunt to pull us out of any sticky situation should we find ourselves writing a check we couldn't cash. That fight however it was just us four genin against someone who beat our taichou, how could you not fear for your life? I've experienced death once and just because I was born into this world didn't mean I would be reckless and just die again if I could avoid it.

"Watch your mouth Fuuma," I grounded out rage just beneath the surface ready to explode at a moment's notice.

"And what are you gonna do? Scaredy cat?"

I stood there part of me wanted to fight but why? Why go after her when all she is saying is the truth I am a scaredy cat. There was something about fighting in this world that I wasn't completely use to yet I still wasn't completely ready to throw myself into the fray. I was subconsciously holding myself back for fear of being killed again but why did I fear death? The fear of death comes from not knowing what happens afterwards right? I now know what comes afterwards but can I be sure that this is what awaits people after they die? No I couldn't and I had no way of proving that notion either. Fear isn't always a bad thing, it is what keeps you alive. It is a primal instinct that keep us from doing crazy and reckless things that might kill us. In this world however I am beginning to learn that fear can kill you faster and subjugate you quicker than in my old world and if I was going to make it here I needed to get control of that emotion or kill it entirely. I looked at Fuuma and sighed.

"I'm not going to do anything, and this is the only time you'll hear me say this so listen up," I took in a breath and swallowed my pride. " Fuuma you are right," I looked away when I said it just so I didn't have to see the stupid grin I knew was plastered on her face.

"Could you say that one more time I didn't quite catch that," she asked mockingly. I pushed pass her refusing to say it again.

"I told you I would only say it once, so no," I said and continued my walk back to camp.

"Awwww, don't be such a baby Yuudai,"

"Fuck off,"

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Morning followed quickly after that and decisions needed to be made. All of us were gathered our taichou standing in front of us.

"First things first," Akako started "Yuudai, who is that girl?"

Karin hid behind me, peeking over my shoulder at my aunt.

"She is from this land her name is Karin, her mother was a casualty of this war, she is the reason I was able to return to the squad," I responded.

"Oh, really and how did she manage that?" she asked.

I looked at karin silently asking for permission and when she nodded I pressed on. \

"She has a healing ability when someone bites her all injuries healed and a boost of chakra is also received,"

She raised her eyebrow at this, it was an intriguing ability after all and very useful.

"Does she have any connections with Kusagakure?"

"That, I'm not sure," I said

Ryojin sucked his teeth.

"So you brought an unknown person around us and got her involved in the mission did that chick hit you in the head too hard?" he asked.

I opened my mouth to strike back at his accusation but was quickly cut off by Akako.

"Ryojin-sama please excuse my rudeness but I ask that you shut-up and let me deal with my subordinate," Akako said. "Now then Yuudai you have potentially compromised our mission by bring this girl along, by protocol I'm supposed to send you back to the village to receive punishment, however I'm sure the last 2 and a half weeks has shown us we needed everyone on board with this so I'll deal with you later," she looked at Karin. "As for the girl she will be taken back to the village and put into the T&I holding prison until we get home,"

"Really T&I? But Taicho she's a non-combatant, and has no shinobi training what so e-,"

"YUUDAI!," Akako snapped. "You are already in enough hot water if I were you I'd be keeping my mouth shut,"

I did as I was told despite my objection to the plan for Karin. I didn't want her to spend time in a jail cell and being interrogated for information she didn't have. Akako wasted no time in summoning two hawks one very large and intimidating one with dark brown feathers that were spotted black, sharp and strong talons and an eyepatch over the left eye with the iwa symbol etched into the metal of it. The second was of a lighter shade almost beige it was big as well as it sat on my Aunt's shoulder and it had a iwa bandana wrap around it's head.

"Mu, take the girl back to the village and put her into T&I custody," she said while pointing to Karin who was still hiding behind me. " Yuudai, move it,"

I removed myself from Karin allowing the bird to pick her up by the collar and toss her on its back before flapping its massive wings kicking up the wind around us and taking off. I wished I could have apologized to her before she was taken but I hoped she would be ok and released without much problem.

"Now Haru," My aunt began and fished out a photo out of her pocket. " I need you to find this man, and I need the real him I'm sure I can trust you to get the job done?" She asked.

"Without fail mistress," it said and took off.

"Now, then on to the next order of business, Sadayoshi-kun we will split up and move east at different paces, I'll have Haru find you when we have our target once again, and this time you kids are gonna pull your own weight, remember those two lieutenants we ran into last time? They will be your responsibility she pointed at us,"

I swallowed, my heart dropped into my stomach and I mentally beat that fear back to keep it locked away.

"We got it, just pray the tribe heirs don't get themselves killed would hate to have to serve a prison term for some crime I didn't commit," Fuuma said.

"Do not worry about us we will come to your aid when you fail," Keita said while shooting Fuuma a disappointed look.

"Great well then, I am sure you guys remember the two rebel strongholds we learned about from our last poor soul we interrogated? Well except Yuudai," Akako asked.

"Yes, the ones in Shinrin province just south of Kusa and the one in Shimo," Josai said.

"Correct, squad two you will head to Shimo and destroy that stronghold," Akako said.

"Squad thirteen you will go to Shinrin then," Sadayoshi said while lighting a cigarette.

"Well then, hop to it," Akako said and shot us a grin before disappearing with Sadayoshi. Well we were on our own now and there was nothing we could do about it but do what we were told. So we moved out each squad heading to their targets. Fuuma took point which meant we were flying to our destination, I just used this time to mentally prepare for the battle to come.

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I had never been this nervous before a mission and why this doubt was creeping into my mind now? I didn't have much of an answer for myself but I knew it had to do with the last defeat I took to that woman.

'Just trust your abilities, trust your training, and trust your squad' I chanted to myself over and over again. We had arrived at the rebel's stronghold, it was a compound layout with various buildings inside the walls but none were above two stories high except for one which was 4 stories high and had to be the headquarters. We had arrived at dusk and waited till nightfall to begin our attack. The rebels had security up but it was laxed after all they were winning this war by a slim margin and had just came off of a decisive win against the village so of course they were riding high. Some were drinking in the courtyard while others sat on the perimeter talking and joking with one another.

"So what's the plan?" I asked.

"Really, I have no idea," Fuuma said "But we need a diversion something to draw attention away any volunteers,"

"Sure I'll do it," Josai said. "Yuudai, care to join me?"

"I have a better idea," I said and made the serpent sign "Earth clone jutsu," The clone came out of the earth and made its way to the east side of the compound where a group of shinobi were standing next to the wall.

"You're going to attack them with a clone?" Aoi asked honestly confused. "Yuudai-kun, I don't see how that is a better plan,"

"Just wait," I said. And watched my clone approach the group of shinobi and in a flash he was in the middle of the group, I made my half seal. "Bang,"

The clone flashed and exploded with force blasting the wind back with enough strength to push us back a bit.

"Explosion release: Suicide Bomb Jutsu," I muttered.

"Goddamn give us a warning next time man," Josai yelled over the blast.

We moved at a breakneck pace into the was chaos in the compound and we began moving in for the kill. We hit the the first responders hard slicing through vital points surgically. We stayed within close proximity of each other to cover blind spots as we had been taught. Wave after wave of opponents came after us and we handled ourselves as best we could. Fuuma and myself moved further in so as to break the moshpit we found ourselves at the center of. And once on the outside of that pit Fuuma took in a deep breath.

"Fire release: Phoenix Breath Jutsu!"

Fire engulfed group and screams of agony ripped through the night sky. Once the flames died down Josai and Aoi emerged from a dome of earth that protected them from the flames. It seemed like it was over the ones that were left had already high tailed it out of there. We relaxed a bit seeing as we had accomplished our mission… or so we thought.

"Yuudai-kun, behind you!" Aoi shouted.

I pulled my Tanto blade and spun at the same time, I saw the pole out the corner of my eye and raised my blade stopping it inches away from my head. Before I could look at my attacker my body seemed to already know who it was because that fear instantly gripped my already fast beating heart and made it almost stop its pace.

"Well, well, well look what the cat dragged in," A cynical voice said. "Pleasure to see the hero boy again, hopefully you can entertain me a bit better than the last time, Yuudai,"

I slowly turned my eyes to the front only to be staring down the one person I didn't want to run into yet.

"F-Fujiko," I said grimly.

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A/N: Hey guys I am so sorry for the delay I had work that was piling up and plus my new promotion was helping with time management either so I got tied up. I also got a bad case of writer's block and was stuck for a while but I finally got pass it thank god. So tell me what you think and I'll do my best to improve. Thank you for reading and as always… Until next time my friends.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 16

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"F-Fujiko," I said grimly.

"I'm flattered you remembered my name, you might be a shoo in with the ladies if you keep that up," she said. I performed a body flicker and returned to my squad, I worked feverishly to hide the fear that was right at the surface.

'Stop, stop shaking so much dammit' I told myself but my body wouldn't listen.

"It seems as though you kids have a hard time in knowing when you are outclassed," Fujiko said with a smug grin. "But that's ok I'll teach you a painful lesson of the difference between the strong and the weak,"

"We are strong and we will defeat you!" Fuuma yelled. I looked at my teammates and saw nothing… no fear like the first time they were calm almost serenely so. Their bodies were not trembling like mines was it was like they had done this so many times before. They took off towards Fujiko like a rocket no hesitation in their steps, but I stood rooted to the spot unable to do what I know I needed to. Fuuma was the first to make a move throwing punch after punch and mixing in a few kicks when needed, Fujiko methodically dodged her attack then parried Josai's kunais he threw with her pole but then quickly realized they had paper bombs attached at the ends and jumped away in the nick of time. Aoi came in a flash with a mid-air kick which she also stopped with her pole and threw Aoi out of the way and landed. Fuuma was mach with her fierce fighting tactics throwing combination after combination all of which got blocked or parried and then Fujiko gave her a hard kick to the side sending her flying into the the HQ building. I wanted to move so badly I felt terrible… I felt sick I wanted to puke.

'MOVE!, GODDAMMIT BODY MOVE!' I screamed to myself. No response.

Aoi was now shooting lighting at her opponent and Fujiko was dodging them effortlessly, it was like nothing they had was fazing her she was dancing around their attacks with grace. She then appeared right in front of Aoi and jabbed her in the gut with her pole and followed with two kicks one the the same as the previous attack and then a side head kick that sent her to the ground and rolling a few more feet.

"Tch, I told you brats, you're not strong enough," Fujiko loudly proclaimed.

Josai then appeared at my side and grabbed me by the collar.

"Oi, we could use some help here Yuudai!" he yelled. I just stared at him.

'I know! I know! I want to I really do I just… can't,'

He tossed me to the ground and began his assault.

"Earth release: Earth Spears Jutsu!" he cried and sent a massive amount of spikes racing towards Fujiko, who just dodged the attack repeatedly.

"Yuudai! You're really just gonna sit there while everyone else is-"

He didn't get a chance to finish because Fujiko had smacked him with her pole and set Josai skidding away. It was obvious that Fuuma and Aoi got dealt with again as they were lying motionless next to each other nose first in the ground.

"Awww, poor babies you guys fought so hard too, well all except one of you," Fujiko said next to me. I scurried away quickly I must have looked pathetic but I was so…Damn….Scared. "Now it's just me and you, Hero boy,"

"Stay away," I said quietly. "Don't come any closer,"

"Awwww, but why? I was going to have the most fun with you, I was gonna wake each one of your friends up so they could look upon you with a hateful gaze and call you scum and a coward, before I killed them right in front of you." she said with a grin. "An then I was going to give you special treatment, I was gonna slowly torture you and bring you on to the brink of death after I have broken your mind and body I would have you beg for me to end your miserable existence, only to leave you alive so you can live the rest of your days in shame," she began to laugh and I was absolutely disgusted with myself. My trembling worsened and I got the chills, my hands were sweaty and clammy my throat was dry.

'What happened to me?' I asked myself. 'Why is it that I can't do anything,'

"Ya'know what is the worse part, kid? You guys are doing all this for absolutely no reason," My head shot up for that.

"W-what are you talking about?"

"I'm saying that this whole civil war thing is fake, nobody is really fighting for control here, this was all cooked up by that greedy tribe in your village...The Ko,"

"B-but people have be dying on both sides, I've been killing people for-"

"Absolutely no reason, oh well let me rephrase that you have been killing for a reason and that reason was to enrich the Ko and Kusagakure's elders," My heart skipped a beat. I Yuudai have been nothing but a pawn? My friends too? We have been here killing people in a fake war cooked up by some greedy old bastards! "Well I'm not too upset I got paid as well as did these 'rebels' and I got to tangle with two Iwa SF captains so I guess it wasn't all bad," she said and began to laugh again. The fear had left me now and in its departure and new emotion too its place, rage and hatred. The rage was towards Fujiko as a person but the hatred was towards this world, this is a terrible place for anyone with a moral compass to live. I realized then that the morals from my old world the things that made me who I was when I came into this world was ineffective in dealing with the problems I face in this life and so I must completely change my way of thinking.

What also made that hard was being from a first world country, where the worst and most barbaric things were done in the shadows not out in the open. Where the most you had to worry about was finding a stable job to maintain a decent standard of living. Here everything was reverse of that and I being spoiled by the life I lived before and I like a child saw things I didn't like and rejected them without doing any digging into the reasoning behind why they were in place to begin with. I was a bigot it was that simple.

Fujiko had ceased her laughter and was now approaching me.

"Well come now hero boy let us have some fun,"

I gripped my tanto and began to stand I dug the blade into my leg a bit to rid myself of the last remaining jitters. I looked at Fujiko and I probably had the look of a mad man I'm sure because she was a little stunned when I looked at her. I could feel the smirk on my face my body was calm ready to burst into action my mind was blank the only thing running through it was 'kill her, make her suffer,'

"Yes," I said slowly "Let's have some fun...Fujiko,"

In a flash I was in front of her and socked her dead center on her nose and felt the bone crack beneath my knuckles. She went flying and I quickly followed running along side her body I rotated my body and slammed my foot right in her stomach and drove her into the ground. She quickly grabbed my foot and slammed me face first into ground next to her her pole came after me and I rolled to avoid being impaled. Once I was up I charged again and she jabbed her pole at me I dodged and did a few one handed seals, I swiped at her neck with my blade and she lean back out of the way and I drove a kick to her chest and slammed my hand to the ground.

"Earth release: Mud wall!" I cried. A wall shot out of the earth right behind Fujiko. She quickly righted herself and landed on the wall feet first and attempted to use it as a springboard to launch her counter but I had other plans, my activation seal was already made. "Bang!" I yelled and blew the wall throwing her of balanced towards me and I sprinted towards her ready to slash at her wide open abdomen, but she was quick to recover and slammed her pole into my arm popping it out of the socket, and followed with another hit to my ribs cracking a few and sent me careening into a nearby building. I quickly popped my shoulder back into place and replaced myself with a clone before exiting and Fujiko had just came through the dust cloud prepared to deal the killing blow and she thought she did until that clone blew up in her face and I head kicked her out of the building.

"Fucking little shit!" She yelled.

"I know I get that a lot," I responded a wide grin still plastered on my face.

"Wipe that stupid grin off your face!"

It was at that point I had realized I'd been smiling the whole time during our fight. I was enjoying this fight so much so that I didn't want it to end and I didn't want any interference. I could feel the adrenaline pumping through my veins, the slight pain I was feeling thanks to my injuries but these were ignored. I was in a zone and the only way I can describe it is like your body being on autopilot or like having an out of body experience. You are completely aware of your movements and actions however you are not consciously telling your body to do it, like breathing you are aware you are breathing in and out but you are not telling your body to do it it just does it.

"Why don't you come here and wipe it off for me Onee-chan?" I asked mockingly.

At that she charged and body flickered to my side but her pole was swing dead center for me and I limboed under it before coming back up and began dodging and barrage of head shots she was taking and she wasn't going slow but it felt like things had slowed down for me. I could see every attack visibly and on her last jab I knocked her pole to the side and came after her but I stop when I saw her face.

"Fire release: Hellfire jutsu!"

"Earth Release: Mud Wall!"

My jutsu erected just in time to save me from being flame broiled alive. I made two earth clones and sent them after her. I was beginning to run low on chakra, I checked on my friends' chakra and they were still stable. I needed to end this otherwise I was screwed.

"Earth release: Headhunter Jutsu," I said and dove underground I felt the clones keeping her on her toes I needed them to bring her to me but also I needed to get my friends to a safe place what I was planing was border line suicide. So one of my clones gathered up my teammates and moved to what I deemed was a safe distance and then I began my final attack. Once my clones worked her over to me I shot my hand out of the ground and grabbed her leg allowing my clones to grab ahold of her, I popped out of the ground and body flickered away and made my seal.

"BANG!" I yelled as I landed behind cover. The resulting blast shook the whole area almost felt like a small earthquake ripped through the place, the wind whipped up violently scattering debris everywhere. I just hoped that would do it.

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Once things settled I made my way to the site of the blast. A giant hole was left but there was nothing the buildings near the blast were leveled and I stood over the crater. I took a breath and let it out slowly.

"It's ov-,"

Before I could finish I was smacked in the head by a blunt object and slammed into the wall. I looked up to see Fujiko beat up but ok and pissed off.

"Fucking brat, you really thought that would work on me huh?!" she yelled.

"Well duh, otherwise I wouldn't have attempted it," I snidely replied.

"I don't think you are in a good position to be telling jokes kid,"

She was right I wasn't I was almost completely drained of chakra, my adrenaline was gone so every breath was painful thanks to my cracked ribs. I had no strength left I couldn't pick myself up to fight if I wanted too. I was still holding out for one last thing and if I was correct it would be my win.

'Please just let it work'

Fujiko started making her way towards me and I stared her down looking for any of the signs I needed to manifest, but once she was looming over me I had given up hope.

"Any last words?" she asked.

"Yeah," I said "Fuck you,"

She raised her pole to deliver the fatal blow and then she stopped half way down and began to spit up blood, a lot of it. I grinned bout time her body gave out.

"W-What i-is happening?"

"It is called internal organ failure, you took a lot of blast head on during our fight I'm actually shocked you body held out for this long," I said.

"But I-I d-dodged all y-your blasts!" she exclaimed.

I chuckled.

"You obviously have no idea how explosions work so I'll give you a quick lesson, when an explosion goes off it creates a blast wave, this wave has two parts to it; a positive which is what you feel initially and a negative that is the suction feeling you get. Now that is not what crushed your organs what did it was the overpressure you were subjected to, even if you dodge the initial blast the overpressure would still be in the area of the blast due to the fact that all the air in that area has been compressed, to put it plainly there was no escape for you. Your body was constantly put under an enormous amount of pressure probably 5-7 times more than it could handle and that last blast was probably 10-15 times. If you didn't die now you would have succumbed later," I explained.

"What a-about you?! How a-are you ok?"

"There is something called minimum safe distance, think about it was I ever in the area of my blasts?" I asked. Her eyes widened. "Any last words?" I mocked.

She didn't say anything as she dropped to her knees her pole clanging next to her and she fell over on her side. Now it was over I had faced my demons head on and won. I was exhausted and to be honest I still felt bad about how much of a bitch I was acting like before the fight and I vowed that it would never happen again. Today a new Yuudai was born, that warrior spirit had woken up and was now raging and hungry for it's next chance it could cut loose and in this world it would get plenty of chances. I also knew there are some aspects of my old life that I can not continue to have affecting my thought process or decision making I need to learn everything I can about this world I need to immerse myself into the politics, culture, and shinobi way of life then and only then can I develop a new moral compass and live my life according to the new values I set for myself. The sun was beginning to rise over the horizon and my body was dragging me into the depths of unconsciousness. I guess I'll deal with everything after I take this short nap. Before long I was out like a light.

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A\N: Man I'm glad there are people who like how this story is coming along, and hey I love my readers so here is another chapter for you and who know you might get another one within the week. Oh before I forget I will be going back through and fixing some errors in my work especially the last chapter my god I don't know I missed that backslash or that damn nonsensical sentence but I guess when you pull an all nighter to get work done then try to finish a story chapter right afterwards that's what you get and you guys don't deserve that so I gotta do better. Again thank you for your support and as always… Until next time my friends.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 17

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Bullets whizzed over my head the battle raging, dead bodies littered the streets of the city we were fighting for. I peeked around the corner only to have a hail of bullets embed themselves into the concrete wall I was taking cover behind. It was another close call a simple brush with death like it was right around the corner but still seemed so far away. I readied a smoke grenade and chucked it into the road to provide my buddies concealment so we could hit the next building. While they moved I began to let my rifle throw bullets down range at the enemy to keep their heads down, the ones next to me also did the same.

"We have reached objective diamonds, I repeat we have reached the objective!" someone yelled over the radio. How anyone could talk in the middle of this firefight was beyond me but I quickly got up and moved towards the adjacent building with my team right behind me, we reached the double doors and I kicked one open to allow the person behind me to enter. Gunshots rang out people began yelling, one in english another in a foreign tongue, I entered and sprinted to the closest cover I could find it just so happened to be an old office desk. Bullets were exchanged in close proximity and we held out as best we could. A small black object hit the wall behind me and my breath hitched and my heart dropped.

"Grenade!" I shouted and dove onto the other side of my shield. I hit the ground hard and the little death ball went off robbing me of my hearing. Everything was now muffled like pieces of cotton were stuffed into my ears, I readied my response quickly.

"Merry Christmas, Motherfuckers!" I yelled as I threw the grenade. The blast was resounding and I could make out a few death screams. I got up and with my team began to sweep the 1st floor of this two floor building. We moved slowly and deliberately to make sure not a single corner went unchecked some of the room's doors were still open and we chucked grenades into those for good measure before entering. The last door on the floor was barricaded really well and kicking the door was not going to work so I pulled the breaching charge out of my pack, placed it on the door and hooked up the initiator and cleared everyone back.

"Fire in the hole!" I yelled and blew the door right of the hinges as well as took care of any debris blocking entrance.

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I began to regain my bearings beginning to slip back into reality from that dream or flashback of my old life, I was in pain so I knew that I was still alive somewhat. I could hear voices around me but they were faint at least to me right now, and I couldn't make them out I was still in that state between both consciousness. I tried to move my body I twitched my fingers and felt the cool gritty earth below them but that was about as good as it would get for movement for me.

"Yuudai! Wake up!"

Ah, I knew that voice… that high pitched brash tone. She can never let me rest. I began to open my eyes and it was blurry I could see shapes but couldn't make them out it was bright out too so that wasn't helping.

"He's waking," another voice said.

As my vision began to come into focus I began to make out my comrades faces. All three were there and were not to injured at least on the surface. Then instantly I was hit by a wave of guilt I didn't forget what I had done. I acted cowardly and betrayed their trust in me.

"Why are you guys still here?" I croaked out.

Fuuma quickly looked at me confused at my question.

"Why wouldn't we be? Your hurt can't just leave you for dead," she said. "Now how bad are your injuries?"

I looked at her and then looked away.

"A few busted ribs maybe a fractured cheekbone, and mild chakra exhaustion," I said quietly.

I don't know why but I could feel the tension in the air between all of us. There were things that were not being said. I'm sure Josai wanted to give me an ear full about my actions, and I wasn't going to insult them with an apology what good would that have done? It doesn't change the fact that I was struck by fear and failed to help them in their time of need. I looked towards Josai prepared for whatever was going to be said between us.

"Josai say what you want to say, I'm sure I deserve it," I said. His shoulders tensed and then he turned with a look I haven't seen before; disappointment. The sun was reflecting off of his glasses hiding his eyes just a bit but I know they never broke contact with mines.

"Tch, I have nothing to say to you," He spat.

"Thats a lie I rather be a coward than a liar," I shot back. In a flash he was on top of me fist cocked back and socked me right across my left eye. I couldn't move so really there was no stopping him.

"You really think you have a right to talk? Huh?!" he yelled. "You left us to die,"

"I did not, you are still alive as far as I can tell, yes I did fail you all in the beginning but I fought in the end did I not?" I asked.

"Fuck, that is not what this is about Yuudai!" he exclaimed. "How can we trust you now?! You froze how can we be sure it won't happen again? We can't and there is nothing you can say to assure us that it won't,"

He was right there was nothing I could say or do at this point, I knew that but the reality of it stung. It pained me so much that I had done this to them.

"Do you want me to leave the squad after this mission?" I asked.

"Woah, woah, woah it's not that serious," Fuuma interjected.

"Yes it is Fuuma, Yuudai could have gotten you or Aoi or myself killed, I can't trust him not in this line of work, it's already bad enough we can't trust anyone while on mission now I have to worry about trusting a teammate too?!" Josai said furiously.

"Well get off of him, he is injured after all," Aoi said as she pulled Josai from on top of me. "Can't this be settled when we get back?"

True we may still have to fight well at least they would I was out for the count this time. Trying to fight with broken ribs was not a good idea a bone could end up puncturing a lung and then I'd really be messed up.

"If you guys want me gone then I'll leave I'll tell Akako-taicho to drop me from the squad,"

I could see the confliction on Fuuma's and Aoi's faces they didn't want me to leave however Josai had a strong argument and to deny that would just be denying logic. I had destroyed the trust between us and that was something that would take time to rebuild but unfortunately time was a commodity that we didn't have much of so every second we spent was precious more so than all the fine pearls and diamonds of this world. The answer was clear.

"When we get back I'll be gone," I said with as much force as I could, I felt a pain in my chest I don't know if it was from my ribs or my heart but nonetheless it was there and it wasn't leaving. What I would be assigned to do next I had no idea but I rather be somewhere where I was wanted, and even though these were my first friends here in this life I always understood that people are sometimes only in your life for a season, and maybe that season had ended for us, I'm sure Aoi and Fuuma would still talk to me but Josai not so much he was hurt and when a young man is hurt it takes time for that pain to fade and again time is something we don't have much of. I know better than anyone that there are consequences for your actions and this is mines.

"Well now what? We don't have the ok to return home and Yuudai is out of commission," Aoi said.

"One of us will take Yuudai back and the others will link up with squad 13," Josai elaborated. Fuuma quickly began to help me up and slung my right arm over her small shoulder.

"I'll take him," she said and in a flash we were gone ripping through the landscape in a series of body flickers.

As we moved north no words were exchanged between Fuuma and myself for a long time. It wasn't awkward silence but it was exactly comfortable either it was like we wanted to talk but just keep quiet waiting on the other to start off. We had been moving for some time before I looked down at Fuuma and could see the sweat that was rolling down her cheek and neck.

"Hey, take a break alright you're gonna need your strength when we get to Earth country," I said

"I'm fine," she said quickly dismissing the whole idea completely. She was so stubborn but I let her have her way this time it wasn't like there was much I could do to stop her in my condition. "So this is it?" she asked.

"What are you talking about?" I answered.

"You know what I'm talking about idiot, about you leaving the squad,"

"You heard Josai, he made a good point I'm not trustworthy as of right now and in this line of work you should be able to trust the people to your left and right to watch your back," I said.

"Who cares if he made a good point, why are you just going to accept it as it is? Don't you feel some form of defiance? Anger? Something?"

"Why should I? it wasn't personal just a statement of fact,"

"Tch, there you go again about facts, and logic so by traditional logic should we be in the special forces?"

I knew where she was going with this.

"No we shouldn't be,"

"But we are, why is that?"

"Fuuma that-"

She stop our movement.

"Answer the damn question," she gritted out. Yeah I wasn't going to get let off the hook this time. I sighed.

"Because we are an exception, an outlier if you will,"

"Right, so logic can't apply to us correct? Meaning logic can't be applied to everything some things are unexplainable correct?"

"Right,"

She turned and looked at me now eyes reflecting and conveying every emotion she was feeling inside without shedding a single tear. If I was to be honest she had some of the most beautiful eyes I've ever had the pleasure to gaze into.

"So why are you just going to accept Josai's stupid notion of what he feels is best for the squad?! Is he in charge?!"

"No he's not but-"

"I never said I didn't trust you, hell I trust you more than anyone you saved me from Konoha, YOU did that and I'm sure Josai objected to it I'm almost positive he did and what did you do? You came anyways, that's the Yuudai I've come to respect and trust,"

Fuuma though rare could also make some really good points of her own and that was a great point. Neither one of us could make the final say on if I stay in the squad or if I left Akako did and if she said 'no' to me being move then Josai would just have to deal with me and vise versa. We would have a working relationship which for shinobi isn't really to difficult to do I mean Kakuzu and Hidan could work together and if they could anyone could.

"Well," I said with a small smile. "We have to wait and see what taicho says about the issue,"

"Damn right," Fuuma said and began to move us again closer to the border.

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It took us till nightfall to reach the village and by this point I was sure I had ruptured a lung because it was becoming harder and harder to draw air into my body. Fuuma rushed me to the hospital as soon as I began to float in and out of consciousness. Once in the emergency room medical-nins quickly stabilized me and repaired the damage done to my ribs, lung and cheek. Fuuma stayed with me the whole night as I slept probably to make sure nothing abnormal would being to happen to me out of the blue. I had to force her to go home and take care of herself the next morning for two reasons one I knew she hadn't eaten or did hygiene in the last 24-48 hours so she was running on fumes but also she looked terrible and two I just wanted to be alone for a bit before taicho would come back with the rest of the squad. That day was spent sleeping and reading fire based ninjutsu scrolls Fuuma had picked up from her house because well I needed something to do other than sleep. I didn't get to study long before there was a knock on my door.

"Come in," I said. The door opened and my mother crossed the threshold still in her shinobi gear. She looked a bit pale but I think that was because I was in the hospital and she worries about me enough as it is. "Oh, okaasan it's you,"

"What were you expecting someone else?" she questioned. "Or maybe you wanted to spend more alone time with your girlfriend here?"

Fuuma blushed so deep I thought she had overheated, I also had a shade of pink dusting my cheeks I'm sure but I handled it a bit better.

"N-no," I stammered out. "I was just shocked that you came I mean you have been very busy with work and all,"

"Of, course I'd come my child is in the hospital, I may be a single mother but that doesn't mean I'd put work before you," she said. She then turned her attention back to Fuuma, who was still red and zoned out a while ago. "So, Yuudai are you going to introduce your future wife to me I'd like to at least know my daughter-in-law's name," she said in a cheerful fashion.

I sighed this was my mother cheerful, and loved making other feel uncomfortable at their expense. I felt bad for Fuuma because I couldn't even give her a heads up she was just getting blindsided.

"Mom, this is Fuuma of the Yama tribe my squadmate, Fuuma this is my mother Yuko," I said.

Fuuma stood and bowed her upper body.

"I-it's a p-p-plesure to meet y-you Yuko-san," she said softly. My mother smiled at her gesture.

"Awww, look how polite you are such a well mannered young lady,"

I scoffed.

"Yeah about as well mannered as a fish with a hook in its mouth," I said under my breath. Fuuma turned to hit me but then stopped mid-action and looked me in my eye and then gave me a sinister smile. She turned back towards my mother.

"Oh, but of course I must be on my best behavior for my future husband's mother it's suicide to start war with the head woman in a man's life," she said in a sweet voice. I really was not liking where this was heading.

"Smart girl, I like you already I hope my son has been treating you well?"

"Actually he can be so mean to me at times, like this one time I made him a bento for after training and he refused to eat it because well he said my cooking was terrible," Fuuma said and threw her face into her hands for extra emphasis.

"LIES!" I yelled. "This is slander this woman has never once in her life cooked for me mom!" I exclaimed. It was too late I could already see the dark aura my mom was giving off. See my mom was scary and the reason was that she could keep a smile the whole time while threatening to do something to you that would make the devil himself cringe at your misfortune. Oh there was no talking to her when she was like this I just prayed to whatever higher power that ruled this dimension to spare me.

"Now Yuudai, I'm sure I've gone over the proper way a young man was to treat a young maiden, correct?" she said icly.

I shuddered.

"Yes, okaasan," I said. In a flash she was next to my bedside leaning in close to my left ear.

"So I did raise you properly and this is how you act when your okaasan turns her back?"

"N-no, okaasan I'm sorry for disappointing you it won't happen again," I said praying that she would back off. Fuuma was getting a kick out of this she was hiding her face still but her shoulders shook with laughter. I was going to kill her for this.

"You are right it won't because if it does I will deal with you, understand?" she asked with a smile.

"Yes, okaasan," I said and she backed off.

"Good well I need to get back to work, Fuuma-chan you let me know if Yuudai mistreats you again, Ok?"

"Will do Yuko-san," she said trying to retain her poker face.

As soon as my mom left Fuuma burst into laughter at my expense.

"Fuck you damn bitch," I said with all the malice I could muster.

"Hahahahaha, Yeah love you too,"

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The squad had returned from Kusa the next day and everyone was in my hospital room. The tension had returned because Josai and myself were in the same room and I'm sure Akako picked up on it.

"So I hear you children have something you want to talk to me about?" Akako stated the obvious.

"Yes, Yuudai wishes to be dropped from the squad and I agree that he should be due to his actions in the field and lack of courage to face the enemy," Josai said.

Damn he made it sound so bad, I mean it was but damn. Akako looked at me and silently asked if it was true.

"Nothing Josai has stated is a lie Taicho," I said.

There was a pause so long it was agonizing Akako had dropped her head in thought and kept it there for a minute before coming up to speak.

"I just wanted to know, who died and put either of you in charge?" she asked. That had caught everyone off guard, looks like I had my answer but Josai obviously didn't know how my aunt ticked.

"No one taicho but I'm making an honest assessment of Yuudai's skills and actions he displayed and I feel-"

"Josai, shut-up you all have been shinobi for all of four months three of those have been spent in the special forces and you're trying to tell me you have enough knowledge and experience to say you know what's best? I should fuck both of you up for such blatant disrespect," she said as a matter of fact. "Let's be honest here if I was to drop Yuudai from the squad it would hurt the squad more than Yuudai, he's already too skilled to go to any other corps so he would be stuck into a random squad who is shorthanded or forced to take the crucible test and be allowed to go on solo missions which would put him leagues ahead of the rest of you. As of right now Yuudai is the most versatile asset we have in the squad, Fuuma you don't think your attacks though enough to take advantage of your monstrous chakra and speed as well as Taijutsu skills, Aoi you have great chakra control but haven't pursued a proper discipline or started to develop a technique to take advantage of that skill not to mention you have skill to use genjutsu but why you have ignored it I have no idea. Finally Josai you are the worst of them all you can only use one element you are intelligent but I wonder how far that will get you later on in life, you have no special talents or skills and you haven't gone on your own to try to develop some new skills or master the ones you know, and yet you want me to drop the best asset we have? No I will not do something so insane," she said.

No one spoke it was a harsh critique and I for one felt it was a bit bias, I really didn't think my skills were that polished at least not to be considered the best of the squad.

"That last mission by SF standards was horrible even though it was a A rank mission however you all have a long way to go and to sit here and try to suggest to me what is best for my squad is disrespectful to me as the captain of the squad, I do not care how you feel about Yuudai's actions and trust me he will be paying a steep price for them but he will remain on this squad and you will get past whatever grievances you may have, understood?"

"Yes, taicho," we all replied.

Akako made her way to the door and slammed it shut leaving us alone.

"Yuudai, just so we are clear again I don't trust you as of now, you have to regain that trust yourself," Josai said.

"Really?!" Fuuma stood up and marched right over to Josai. "Did you not just hear what taicho said you have to let it go,"

"I can do that without trusting him,"

"But in the field you said you couldn't so which one is it Josai?" Aoi asked. "Akako-taicho said let it go, if you refuse to then it's you that will become a burden to the squad,"

"Me?! A burden?! You guys are out of your minds,"

"Enough!" I shouted. "Look, if he doesn't trust me then that is fine, I won't force someone to do anything they wish not too, I've accepted that my actions caused this and will use this to learn and be a better teammate," I said. "So please if you wish to keep arguing about then leave I'd rather spend my last day in the hospital in peace than dealing with something that will not get solved today,"

"Tch, with pleasure I'll take my leave then," Josai said and quickly disappeared through the door. The girls after giving each other and glance also decided to leave after wishing me a good evening. Once I was alone I threw all the scrolls that were on my bed off in a rage. I was pissed at no one but myself. How did I let this happen? I was the reason behind this split in our cohesion and if this didn't get fixed soon it my prove deadly for one of us. I needed to fix this and there was only one way I knew how it would be terrifying but then again what was even more terrifying was being the reason one of my friends didn't make it home alive.

"No!" I said to myself with hot tears pricking my eyes. "I will not allow any of my comrades to die no matter the foe or circumstances,"

You know the old saying what doesn't kill you will make you stronger? I never believed that quote spoke so much truth until this day.

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A/N: Well another chapter down and this will conclude the Kusagakure arc. Man this took longer than I thought it would and it really felt like it was dragging but I got it done. Feedback is always welcomed both good and bad because it makes me a better writer. I want to reach the level of sophistication Silver Queen and SoundlessSleep have in their writing. So how do you think Yuudai will conquer his fear problem and fix his now split squad? We will see but as always thanks for reading…. Until next time my friends.

P.S.: So I might not update for a bit because of editing other chapter mistakes and trust me there are ALOT so please bear with me this is just so you guys don't think this fic died or something crazy.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 18

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You ever had a sinking feeling? Almost like you were drowning and no matter how much you fought it just wasn't going away. That was my emotions in a nutshell as I signed myself out of the hospital, I was a wreck physically, mentally, and emotionally. I exited the building and was greeted by mother nature with a blast of icy wind that cut through my entire being chilling me to my soul. I quickly made my way home seeing that I would freeze to death if I had to stay outside longer. I used body flicker and took to the rooftops seeing as this was my favorite way of travel and began the trip home.

I was pushing my limits a bit because I was still recovering but it wasn't to much of a burden on my body or my reserves so I pressed onwards until the Tsu compound came into sight and I pushed a bit more chakra into my legs for the boost I needed for my landing target. I sprinted and took off the wind blowing my hair back and flew towards my house. I touched down with more force than intended and skipped off the roof and landed in the yard, I had hoped my mom wasn't there to hear that because she would have my ass. I froze for a second to see if she would emerge from the house in a rage but nothing happened. I made my way inside and kicked my sandals off and rounded the corner to the living room… where my mother awaited with a smile on her face. I instantly froze in place.

"Tadaima, okaa-san I didn't know you were home," I said sheepishly.

"Oh, is that why you thought it was a good idea to try and land on my roof?" she asked.

"Umm, I just wanted to give my muscles a good stretch seeing that I've been in the hospital for a while I didn't mean to land as hard as I did," I quickly responded.

"I see, you do realize if you mess my house up I'll have you slaving in here till you next mission?"

My blood ran cold, I hated house work especially the housework my mom had in mind; hand scrubbing the floors, cleaning the bathroom till it shined and sparkled, or the worse wiping down everything from the walls to the tabletops until it could pass her dreaded white glove test. I would be cleaning for what would seem like years, I didn't want that at all.

"I understand okaa-san, just please don't punish me I swear I won't do it again," I pleaded.

She sighed which allowed me to exhale the breath I was holding in seeing that she wasn't going to berate me further. I quickly took a seat across from my mother and my eyes caught some of her paperwork she was working on. One piece in particular caught my attention "Bridge in Wave country nearing completion." it read. My mother then flicked my forehead.

"Quit being nosey, you get that from your father," she said.

I for one didn't even know who my father was or what he looked like so it got me curious and I was hell when my curiosity struck.

"Speaking of my father, what was he like?" I asked.

My mom stop what she was doing and looked at me like she was debating what to say.

"Your father was a man of noble character, it's funny how alike you two are, he loved sleeping in and being in everyone's business but he genuinely cared about everyone he met and wouldn't allow the shinobi world to corrupt his morals," she said and then laughed a bit. "Akako use to call him 'Bear-kun' because he was a big softy but a deadly shinobi when angered or provoked and it took a lot to get him to that point,"

I looked at my mother as she talked about my dad and could see the love in her eyes as she rambled on. She had that dreamy eye look of a lovestruck teen experiencing the emotion for the first time. She began to tell stories some funny some serious some about acts of bravery and heroism. Apparently my father was an incredible man and shinobi but there was something I knew she was leaving out. I cut my mother off in the middle of another story,

"So what happened to him? He was so great then why isn't he here?"

It looked like she was hit by lightning, she began searching for the right answer probably to put it in a way I could understand because well in her eyes I was a child and didn't understand this life fully yet, and she was right to an extent.

"Well, you see Yuudai your father was exiled from the village for a crime," she finally said.

"What for?" I countered.

"I'm not at liberty to say, I'm sorry,"

She looked hurt at the fact that she couldn't be straightforward with me and I was fine with that I knew that I would find out eventually, if the show was any indication on what kind of secrets could be hidden and buried in a shinobi village then I knew it would only be a matter of time before those secrets would be revealed to me and I'm sure the main tribe houses were behind the whole thing. I didn't want to pry anymore than I needed to for now but there was something I wanted from my mother.

"Did he give you anything for me? Like did he leave something behind for you to give to me?"

Her eyes widened a bit.

"Oh my god, he did and I completely forgot about it," she said as she shot up and jogged towards her room. I heard her rummage through things and swearing for a few minutes before finally she emerged with a katana. She placed it on the table lightly and I could see the beauty of it completely, the scabbard was black with red fading in so that when the light hits it just right the ominous red shade burst through the black shadows that try to restrain it. The sageo cord was red as well and so was the handle. I then drew the blade a bit and was met by pitch black steel and towards the hilt I saw my name in kanji etched into the blade in small golden lettering.

"I remember when he bought that for you he had spent a fortune on it and I kicked his ass because of it but I saw how happy he was about you coming to this earth I couldn't blame him too much," my mother said softly. "He wanted you to have that after you graduated from the academy, I had completely forgotten about it,"

I heard my mother but I was still transfixed by this blade and the best part of all my father had bought it for me as a graduation present. This man who I didn't even know or met already had done more for me than my past father who never got me anything hell he didn't even know when my birthday was or didn't care enough to remember or even remember that I existed but whoever this man was he now had a small place in my heart. I wasn't planning on using a sword in my fighting style I thought it would slow my development with ninjutsu down and be too much of a liability in combat for me but after seeing this blade and hearing the story behind it I was all too eager to change my mind and adapt my style and fit this blade into it.

I resheath it and looked up at my mother.

"Okaa-san, what was my father's name?" I asked.

"Yukimura," she said.

"Yukimura, huh," I repeated. I picked up the sword and clutched it to my chest. "Thank you, otou-san," I whispered softly.

"Alright, time for you to get in the bath," my mother said and then covered her nose. " I can smell you from here,"

I cracked a devilish grin and put my sword down and rose to my feet. I did a quick body flicker and tried to snag my mother in a tight embrace but she was too fast for me and disappeared, I then felt a smack to the top of my head.

"If you thought for one second I was going to let you hug me in your state you must have mistaken me for someone else," She said.

"Awww, okaa-san come on don't you love me?" I asked.

"Very much, but that doesn't mean I want your body odor all over me, now start moving to the bathhouse or I swear-"

"Yes, yes okaa-san I'm going," I said with faux dejection. I quickly gather my bathing items and my basin and started the cold trek to the Tsu's Bathhouse. As I walked I across the compound I began to think about the title of that report mother was working on. If it is speaking of the bridge I'm thinking of then that means that Team 7 of Konoha has almost completed their mission to the land of waves. Which means if everything goes right Zabuza and Haku will die along with Gato, and then the chunin exams will be on the horizon. It was hard trying to keep track of what I knew was supposed to happen in the timeline when I'm in Iwa. Iwa had no significant roles in the first half and wasn't even talked about in the second half until the 5 Kage Summit so I was really on the outside looking in. As I made it to the bathhouse I quickly made my way to the men's side and undressed and walked into the steaming bathroom. It was hot and humid in the room a light haze clouded everything, men sat in the bath and socialized about work or their wives or things that have happened on missions. This was the only part of the Tsu compound that was not segregated by branch and main house, however everyone subconsciously did it anyways with who they talked to branch talked to branch and main to main.

I sat at one of the shower stalls and began to rinse my body, it was kind of weird not just using the shower as my bath at first when I began to do this. Coming from a culture that either showering or using a bath was acceptable ways of cleaning oneself it took some getting use to. After dumping the basin full of water over my head to rinse all of the soap suds off of me I hopped into the giant communal bathtub and allowed the heat of the water to cleanse me in a way that wasn't physical. I allowed my mind to wander to topics of the future, like how much time I had before the great Madara Uchiha would make his reemergence once more. I knew as I was now I'd be no match for him or any of the shinobi that would be reanimated to fight the shinobi alliance in that war, I sunk deeper into the bath. I hated thinking about these kind of things, always have the future was something that is so hard to predict I don't know why people bothered. Then there was the state of things in my village, this arbitrary tribe set up that ruled everything. Did I really want change? Or would I make things worse by ousting the current system. Revolution was something that required timing more than anything things have to come to a head, people had to be fed up with the current system and rise up against it for it to be effective. You can synthetically engineer it but that requires years of psychological operations and social engineering to accomplish and that requires money, money that the Ko could easily counteract. I began to blow small bubbles in the bath, man this was so frustrating. Then you had Karin, what if me bringing her here not only messed with the timeline to a point that a whole new story would unfold but also with her life as well. She was supposed to be a member of team Taka plus how can I bring her to a village that would probably do exactly what Kusa would have done to her… Shit this was irritating as fuck.

"Oh, you're in here too, huh,"

Gin slipped into the bath next to me.

"Yeah just trying to get clean after a long mission and time in the hospital," I said.

"How are your injuries?"

I shrugged. "Eh better, can't say 100% though,"

"I hear that you learned how to use the explosion release as well,"

I turned to him and looked Gin straight in the eyes. "Who told you?" I asked.

"Josai did after he and Aoi linked up with our squad and our captains,"

That bastard, no one told him to tell anyone about my use of explosion release. One main reason was because I didn't have a good explanation as to how I learned it in my two week disappearance act I pulled,saying I learned it from Deidara would land me in even more hot water than what I was in now no pun intended. Man was he really going to be that petty about this whole situation?I put my mask of indifference on to hide my anger.

"Eh, yeah I did learn how to use it no big deal," I said.

"It is, you know you have to receive training from the Tsuchikage before you have authorization to use it in combat, right?" Gin asked.

"Yeah well I didn't have time to come home just so I could put in a request of him to train me, I was in the field after all, choices need to be made on what is practical not what is written in a book," I shot back.

"But, if you don't follow the rules, it will give rise to lack of discipline and morality," he countered.

Oh Gin, if only you knew who you were dealing with.

"So judging by your last statement Gin if the rules told you to kill children or rape women would you?" I asked.

He thought for a bit.

"No I would not,"

"But, why not it is the rule after all," I said.

"You can't use that as an example Yuudai,"

"Yes I can, you can't say you will follow the rules and condemn people who do not, until the rules tell you to do something you disagree with it is one or the other you can't have it both ways," I said. "That is a contradiction and a clear trait of a hypocrite,"

He looked shocked for a second and then Gin's cool demeanor returned.

"Are you saying that I am a hypocrite?"

I sighed that whole thing just went right over his head.

"No I'm not, I'm just telling you be cautious following that train of thought you just used it will seed hatred and contempt among those who see you do it especially in your subordinates,"

I stood up and made my way out of the bath I had soaked long enough anyways.

"Enjoy your bath Gin-sama,"

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The next morning was an early one for me as I began to get back into my usual training regimen. 4 am and I was outside in the cold with my katana going over basic kata I learned as a kid when I was training for the academy. I was stiff not from not knowing the moves but just from lack of practice of them, it would take me months before I could build up the muscle memory I would need to be effective with it in combat. I flowed through each kata slowly feeling each movement in my body trying to memorize the feeling each time more and more. Once I was satisfied I began working on my development in fire release, which was actually quite difficult. One superheating of chakra required a lot of focus on my part as of now and the level of heat I was producing was inconsistent thus making the flames weak. The way Fuuma told me for her it was like lighting a match in the pit of your gut, but for me it wasn't instant like that it was more of like starting a fire with kindling. Again slow and not useful in combat yet which was irritating but again nothing in life ever comes fast and things that do never stay long. I trained until 7 when my mother called me inside for breakfast. I ate quickly and went to wash up before changing into my shinobi uniform and heading out to meet the squad for our usual morning training. I jumped onto the roof and was about to take off until I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"And where do you think you are going?"

I turned to see my aunt/captain I didn't know what mode is was in right now.

"No where now, seeing as you have a solid hold on me taicho," I said trying to play it safe.

"That right because I'm here to dole out your punishment, Yuudai" she said. "First thing your pay has been docked in half," she said as she dropped a pouch of ryo in my hands. The pouch itself was still pretty big I'm sure it had to be a good decent amount way more than what a Genin should be earning. "And second, you have trash pick up and cleaning detail all week,"

That crushed me, a week of no squad training?! That's really messed up and it meant that I would have to pick up the slack on my own… goddamnit

"A week?!" I exclaimed. "But-"

"No buts, go the the front of Tsuchikage tower and wait there the person in charge of the detail will meet everyone on the detail there at 8 you have 10 minutes I suggest you hurry to make it on time,"

With that Akako disappeared. I sighed oh well best do what I'm told otherwise it will get ugly for me. Plus I'm sure Josai will be happy to hear that I'm paying for my crimes. I took off in the direction of the tallest building to do my civil duties for the day. As I neared closer I leaped off the last roof and landed on the bridge next to some chick. The bridge swayed a bit due to my weight being instantly applied.

"HEY! Watch where you're landing, ya brat," she yelled.

I looked up at her to see who it was I had pissed off this time. Her hair wasn't too long it stopped at her chin line. Her black irises were fierce and her frame was slender and I guess her height to be about 5'0ft.

"Oh, my bad," I said and turned away to finish my trip to the tower. She flashed in front of me and we stared eachother down for a bit.

"Is that all you have to say to the granddaughter of the Tsuchikage?!" she asked.

Oh so this was Kurotsuchi just younger no wonder why I didn't recognize her. I think she was shown as a child briefly in an episode but I don't remember it. I went to move past her and she got in my way again, I really didn't have time for these games.

"Running around using your grandfather's title to get people to see you as important doesn't change the fact that they don't see you as important to begin with," I said.

"Who the hell do you think you are?! What's your name?" she asked outraged. If I were to guess she was my senior by at least two years so she must have passed the chunin exams by now meaning she out ranked in both rank and status, However I knew that my records were sealed because of my SF affiliation so even if she wanted to figure out who I was there was no way she could, Tsuchikage's granddaughter or not.

"I don't think I'm anyone other than myself and two that is none of your business," I said and pushed past her.

"Oh yeah, don't think this is over I'll have your head," she yelled.

"Sure, that is IF you can figure out my name, goodluck hime-san you're gonna need it," I shouted back as I rounded the corner to the tower. I stood out in front of the tower and waited for whoever would be in charge of me for the day. Soon Kurotsuchi came rounding the corner and raced towards me.

"Ha so you're the one that is on my detail huh," she said with a grin. "This is wonderful I'll make sure you enjoy your time today,"

Great… just great. I have terrible luck.

"Yeah, sure can we get on with this?" I asked.

"We need to do introductions first," she said.

"Aren't you a shinobi? Information gathering is something that should come natural, I said you can have my head if YOU could figure out my name I'm not going to tell you just because you are in charge," I said dismissively.

"Tch, fine I see why you're on this shit, no respect for authority,"

"Respect is a two way street you have to give respect to recieve it, that whats wrong with this place," I shot back.

I could see that I was frustrating her and it probably wouldn't bode well for me, but I was never one to hold my tongue no matter who was in front of me. To be honest I knew Kurotsuchi wasn't a bad person at least from what I knew about her. She did have a short temper which I needed to not get on her bad side too much throughout the day but eh if she keeps asking and making stupid statements then I'll keep giving her smart ass remarks. This was going to be a lovely week I can just tell already.


	20. Chapter 20

A/n: unfortunately this will not be a chapter update but rather an explanation. So first off after getting schooled in the ways of writing by SoundlessSleep and being given a lot more insight and doing a lot of self reflecting on the way the story is heading i've decided to scrap this version and redo everything from scratch. I know this is a shock and for those of you who have enjoyed it so far I am truly sorry for this but as a writer I care about you as the reader and feel you deserve a more well thought out and detailed story. Yuudai,Fuuma, Aoi, And Josai and company are not going anywhere yes their roles in the story will change but they will still be there. I just need to flesh them out a bit more and add more motive to them. Also I am in need of a beta reader if you are talented in giving honest critique and would like to assist me in this please pm me. I am also planing on changing the title as well so if you would like to read the new story follow me. I again thank all of you who have read the story up to this point and enjoyed it and I promise you will not be disappointed by this new story I am crafting.


	21. chapter 21 (update)

A/N: Hey everyone I hope that you guys have had a great holidays ate good food and now working it off in the new year hahahaha. no but on a serious note I am still working hard on this story, Ive done so many writes and rewrites I'm shocked I haven not ran out of space in Google docs. I finally found a beta reader and right now they are proofing the first arc which is the academy arc. I wanted to release this to you all on the 1 year annaversary of Trials and Tribulations was published, but then my actual job the army comes knocking and right now as I write this I am currently on my way to California for more deployment training. On top of that I've been selected to be a combat advisor overseas so I don't know how it will effect my ablilty to write and update but I'll find out soon. Anyways I just wanted to let yall know what's going on and why you haven't seen much activity from me. Once again thank you all for the support and have a great year in whatever it is you plan to do... until next time my friends.


	22. Chapter 22 last update

A/N: Hey everyone it's me hope everyone is having a good year so far. So this Is the last time I'll be updating on this story because… I just posted the new revised one! So yes just to let you guys know there have been some major changes and this plot is going in a completely opposite direction than Trials and Tribulations. The title of the new story is From Hero to Rei please go check it and tell me what you think. Thank you.


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